Spinning Slash
by Freezair
Summary: I need a good desc. for my weird little slightly-AU-not-actually-slash-standard-Linkspawn-Ganonback-fic, but summing it up is hard. I'll go with this: Vertically challenged five-year-old seeks the secrets of her family's sword technicque. There. Done.
1. Posie

1 Spinning Slash, Chapter 1: Posie  
  
  
  
At first glance, one would not think much of the tiny figure, slumped in the corner. It was about a foot tall at full length, little more. It wore a very tiny green shirt, with a shiny miniature leather belt and a smooth, emerald skirt. It was deathly still, in the corner of the pastel yellow-painted walls. Little more than a doll.  
  
Suddenly, the doll lifted its head. It was no doll.  
  
The tiny girl's wide, terror-stricken eyes looked around, seeing only the backside of her living barrier. Each strand of her flossy blonde hair seemed to quiver, and the light in her baby blue eyes flickered with some emotion, something between ultimate terror… and deepest fury. She tried to lift her miniscule hands to protest the oncoming wave of catcalls, jeers and mockery, but it only fell to her side. Reluctantly, she smoothed out her green skirt and bent down again, covering her head with her hands and tucking her semi-long hair down the back of her shirt.  
  
She knew it would not be much longer until they broke her guard and got to her.  
  
"Back off, jerks! What did she do to you? What did she ever do to you? Nothing, that's what! Why can't you nitwits just get off her case?"  
  
"Because," taunted Tony raucously, "she's an easy target. Get off it, freckle girl!"  
  
With one forceful shove, he forced Elaine aside.  
  
She feel backward to the ground beside the tiny girl, and shook her head. Her short, brownish-red hair flung in the small girl's face, but the girl did not complain. Instead, she gave Elaine a small shove, sending her back up to her feet.  
  
"Thanks, Posie. Don't worry, I'll stop those idiots." Grumbling, she brushed off the front of her embroidered white dress.  
  
"It's ok." replied Posie, speaking at last. Her voice was a little high-pitched, but had a sort of liquid quality to it, like she was speaking through a mouthful of maple syrup. "I'm used to it, thanks…"  
  
"What? Posie, if you let those idiots get to you, it'll only get worse. They'll keep teasing you and teasing you, and by the time you're ten years old everybody in all of Hyrule will be after you! What would some big high and mighty person you admire, like Princess Zelda for example, think if they knew how you let your self succumb to lowlifes like them? What would the Glowballs think? Good Goddesses, what would your mom and dad think?"  
  
"They don't have a clue, remember? And you promised me you wouldn't tell them. You haven't broken your promise, have you?"  
  
"Posie, I'm your best—well, OK, so technically only—friend. I wouldn't dare betray you. And I haven't told them about…"  
  
Posie flung up her hand to prevent her from saying more.  
  
"Got it. Now, for the Jerk Patrol…"  
  
Elaine flung herself around… and found herself face-to-face with a red haired boy with a large nose, black eyes, and freckles, wearing a long sleeved shirt under a pair of denim overalls. This was the image of Tony, the resident bully in Kakariko Village's only kindergarten. His teeth were bared, and his heavy eyebrows were pointing downward. He already had a particular grudge against Posie and her friend Elaine—and he looked even less happy with them than usual.  
  
Elaine gave a trying gulp, and choked out her words: "H-h-hi, T-T- Tony."  
  
"Well, well, well, if it isn't freckle girl and her sidekick the midget. Who you callin' the Jerk Patrol, midget friend? I wouldn't be talking if I were you, seein' as you're part of our personal two-girl freak show."  
  
"Posie and I are not freaks! For your information, that large brown spot on my back is a birthmark. And so what if Posie is only, like, what, a foot tall? Some people are just small, and she's one of them."  
  
"Oh yeah. And tell me the spinout is just another fluke, huh?"  
  
"DON'T MAKE FUN OF THAT!" came a cry from behind Elaine. The cold, enraged voice could have come from a giant, it was so loud, and yet it was high pitched but sort of liquid, like someone talking through a mouthful of maple syrup.  
  
Posie, the small girl barely a foot tall, strode from behind Elaine and stood, trembling not from fear but from rage this time, in front of her. Her lips were pursed, and there was a fiery twinkle in her baby blue eyes. She looked up at Tony and his gang of followers, and opened her mouth to speak.  
  
"You laugh when I get angry. You laugh when I perform the stunt, and when I fall down with getting it done successfully. Well, let me tell you something. You don't even know what I'm doing! You don't know if I'm trying to do that! You don't know how to measure the success of what I'm doing, because you have never seen it done the right way before, and if you have, then you don't know that I'm trying the same thing. You are clueless! So unless you know what you're seeing like the back of your hand, I wouldn't make any sudden judgements."  
  
She gave herself a wry smile. She remembered what her father had told her about dealing with people who constantly downgraded her, and how to change things: "Don't give in to them, because if you let them tease you, then eventually you'll start believing them, and thinking that your are worthless, that you are lower than life. Don't be afraid to speak up against them. Let them know how you feel about how they treat you, but don't rub it in their faces like 'You shouldn't be making fun of me, because I'm better than you are, so there', more like 'Hey, I don't like what you're doing, because I'm just the same as you are and I deserve a little respect.' And don't be afraid to tell me if you're getting harassed. You can tell me anything that's wrong."  
  
With these seemingly confidence-building thoughts, her face fell. Anything… if she could tell him anything, then why did he still not know about how they teased her? She sighed. Why? Was it on accord of her own cowardice, or… something else? Some strange logic, perhaps on account of the fact he…  
  
SLAM! A large(for her size) hand smacked her upside her face, sending her toppling down to the floor. She skidded down back to the corner across the pink carpet. She braced herself back on her tiny arms, looking up at the bully who had just hit her. Rage flashed in her eyes. She rose to her feet, glaring at her attacker. One word was written across her face:  
  
Revenge.  
  
She bent down and picked up a stick that had fallen from the nearby table that she had skidded into earlier. Earlier, when they were playing the game of tag that had started this whole ordeal. Fumbling, she held it out to her side.  
  
All eyes in the room shifted to her.  
  
A flutter of chuckles flooded the room. They knew what was coming next. Tony was on the verge of breaking into pieces because of his laughter. Krissi, a little girl who always wore bright yellow dresses, a little girl who was Tony's best friend and right-hand bully, was turning purple in the face because of trying to hold back her a laughter.  
  
"No, wait, Posie, don't…"  
  
SWISH! Posie began to spin around wildly, like a person stuck in a tornado. Children gave a few choppy steps backward to avoid the spinning stick. She became a greenish-tan blur, then fell to the ground like a lead weight. The stick flew out of her hand, and Tony winced as it grazed across his cheek. But there was no reason for him to cry; it barely hurt him.  
  
He wasn't about to let anybody else believe that, though.  
  
"AAAGGHHH!" he howled as he held his hand over his cheek. "YOU LITTLE TWERP! YOU HIT ME!"  
  
Her turned around and fled towards a room near the front of the kindergarten.  
  
"MISS CLAIRE! MISS CLAIRE!" he cried for the teacher of the small school. He reached up for the doorknob handle of her office and ran inside. The others could hear his whiny sniveling.  
  
"Oh, sure, Tony." sighed Elaine. "Milk it for all it's worth. You realize, you're gonna get in massive trouble for this one, Posie."  
  
"Yeah, I know." Posie sighed. "Oh well."  
  
"But… what if she tells your parents?"  
  
"She won't if I beg… I don't think."  
  
"But if she ignores your pleas?"  
  
"Then pray to Din, Nayru, and Farore that I don't get in too much trouble."  
  
"Think they'd listen?"  
  
Elaine's philosophical musing was cut short, however, because at that moment, Tony, crying huge false tears, ran over, holding the hand of a young woman, in her mid-twenties, with large brown curls that hung over her shoulders and huge green eyes that had a soft, motherly look in them. She wore a simple white dress with a long, tight blue skirt. She looked down at Posie and Elaine, shaking her head.  
  
"Posie, Tony says you hit him. Is this true?" Although most kids would fib, Miss Claire knew she could trust the little girl to tell the truth. However, even with her truthfulness, Miss Claire knew as well that Posie wouldn't tell the whole truth; leave something out, in an effort to save herself.  
  
"But… but… I didn't mean to! It was an accident! I swear! Honest!"  
  
Miss Claire knelt down on the floor to look into Posie's face, and gave her a stern, but soft, look.  
  
"Well, Posie, accidents will happen, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't apologize."  
  
"He didn't let me! He didn't give me enough time!"  
  
"Well, you should have been quicker."  
  
"But… but…"  
  
"No buts, Posie. And also tells me you were doing the… well, that little spinout trick you do whenever you tend to get mad. Which happens far to often, if you ask me. You need to learn a thing or two about keeping your temper under control. Hmm? What's your side of the story?"  
  
"But… he was making fun of me and Elaine!"  
  
"Well, you should have come and gotten me, then."  
  
"But… but… Oh, yes, Miss Claire." sighed Posie humbly, in the reprimanded monotone most kids took on when scolded.  
  
"Mmm? Are we forgetting something, young lady?"  
  
Posie sighed and turned to Tony. "Sorry, Tony." But she growled under her breath at him just the same.  
  
"Better." replied Miss Claire. "But I'm afraid I can't let you go off easy this time. You're doing that trick more and more often, and that's the third time this week. And what's worse, you went and hit somebody this time, even if it's just an accident. I'm afraid… no matter how much you beg and plead for me not to… I'm going to have to tell your parents."  
  
"What?!?! No! You… you can't! You just can't!"  
  
"Posie, you hurt somebody. I can't let it go unnoticed. As much as I trust you, well… who knows what letting you get away with this will do to your conscience. I have to let them know."  
  
"But… but…"  
  
"Look, if it makes you feel any better, I won't speak to them right away. It can wait until… well, you'll find out soon enough."  
  
And with that, she picked herself up off the floor and returned to her office, leaving Posie only to wonder about her fate.  
  
***********************  
  
Elaine sighed and stared down at her friend, who was now crying her heart out. She looked around outside the small clubhouse to make sure no one was listening. No one was, of course—they were the only ones who used the wooden playhouse, and if it wasn't for one of their strange games, it was for a private conversation like the one they were about to have. She stuck her head back in from the window, and turned back to Posie.  
  
Little did she know that this time, the potential eavesdroppers were behind the playhouse.  
  
Tony and Krissi were innocently playing just behind the house, because there was enough shade there to keep out the noonday sun, when the large tree was already crowded. But their ears hooked on like magnets when a snippet of temptingly delicious conversation wafted out their way.  
  
"Well, I screwed it up again. I really screwed it up again."  
  
"Hey," replied Elaine consolingly, "you remember what your dad said. It isn't an easy thing to do."  
  
"But he said it's something everybody in our family should be able to…"  
  
"Yeah, but he also said that it took some people longer than others to get. Wasn't he, like, ten or something before he understood it?"  
  
"He never got his hands on a… you know… till then, remember? Once he did, he got it right away."  
  
"Look, I think your problem is that you're expecting instant success when it's obvious that you aren't gonna get it."  
  
"I AM NOT!" Posie protested. "AND BESIDES, YOU KNOW THE TRUTH AND YOU JUST AREN'T GONNA ADMIT IT BECAUSE YOU DON'T WANNA HURT MY FEELINGS! IT'S BECAUSE I'M A RUNT!" A loud THUD and a rush of sobs followed.  
  
"Your size and strength have nothing to do with it. It's just a matter of your concentration and determination."  
  
"BUT I'M CONCENTRATED! I'M DETERMINED!"  
  
"Determined, yes. Concentrated, I'm not so sure. You remember what you dad said…"  
  
"About the…?"  
  
"Yes, partially. But also about listening to what those jerks say. You really are starting to believe them."  
  
"I know, I know." More sobs.  
  
"Besides, we all know—me, you, your parents, my dad, even the Glowballs—that you're worth a lot more than that."  
  
"But still… what am I doing wrong?"  
  
"Well, didn't your dad say something about knowing when you had it right?"  
  
"Yes. He said… you had to concentrate all of your power, your heart and soul… on it. Nothing else. It should practically leap out of your hands with life force. But you couldn't let go, or else it would ruin it."  
  
"That's part of where you messed up this morning." said Elaine wryly.  
  
"Then, the instant you stopped focusing, it would sort of take you over. You would move not of your own will, but of it's. And you would feel the energy being released from inside you, like a tsunami of force. At least, that's what he said."  
  
At that, the two spies didn't listen to any more. They instantly turned and faced each other.  
  
"Woah! Those two are crazier than I thought!"  
  
"Yeah!" replied Krissi. "And hey, you know how she's always talking about her dad… well, now we know that he's just a crazy, no matter how much she tries to say he's the coolest!" She did have a point—Posie did often brag about her father, but only in the sense that he was coolest in the world to her. She didn't care about what the other kids though much, and if they retaliated, she would just reply, "Well, it's just my opinion, feel free to have your own."  
  
"Mmmfff!" mumbled Tony, trying not to laugh too loud. "This is just great! We gotta—just gotta—tell the others about this!"  
  
"Not yet! Wait—just wait—till lunch ends in a few. Miss Claire said she had a special surprise for us during Announcements, right?"  
  
"Yeah…"  
  
"Well, if it's good enough to be called a 'surprise', then I bet it's really cool! Anyway, we'll wait until she gets all hyped up over whatever it is, then tell everybody! Boy, will that spoil her fun!"  
  
"Too true, Krissi! Once again, you are a genius."  
  
"Only half the genius you are!" Krissi gave the typical reply to Tony's statement.  
  
CLING-A-CLONG! CLING-A-CLONG! The deep, brass sound of a cowbell echoed across the playground. All heads turned, to see Miss Claire waiting in the doorway ringing the bell that signaled the end of the lunch. A pounding of feet, a clamoring of voices, and all of a sudden, all 27 of the small school's students were rushing back into the room, and seating themselves on the floor for the end-of-the-day Announcements.  
  
Miss Claire sidestepped from the door and slid back in front of the chalkboard, the remnants of the day's doodles still lingering here and there. She waved her hands about motioning for the rowdy hoard of children to calm down.  
  
"Class, class, please be quiet now, class! It is time for your surprise!"  
  
The children instantly stopped talking and began to listen intently.  
  
"Now, class, I have a very, very special announcement to make. Two weeks from now, on Friday, we will be having a very special day. It will be our yearly, or annual, Parent's Day festival! Each of you will bring one of your parents—both, if you like—to school with you for a day! They will get to see the school and I will get to meet each one of them. Then, we will have contest, with kids and their parents facing off against other kids and their parents in a variety of games for a trophy!"  
  
"Cool!" came cries from most of the class.  
  
"Oh no." came Posie's desolate cry.  
  
Tony and Krissi turned, with vindictive looks on their faces, towards Posie.  
  
This is just too good to be true, thought Tony to himself.  
  
"Posie, oh, Posie, did you hear that?" said Tony with mock curiosity.  
  
"I-I-I did." replied Posie, earnest but terrified.  
  
"Each of us can bring one of our parents to school week after next. And wouldn't you know it, why, we've all heard so much about your father, we're just dying to meet him! And isn't this just a perfect opportunity?"  
  
"Um…"  
  
"Well, waddia say, midget? Why not bring your dad to school and prove how supposedly cool he is, huh?"  
  
"Um… H-h-he's t-t-too busy t-t-to come." Posie stammered.  
  
"Now, not if he's the coolest, no. Why, he'd come if Gannon suddenly reared up out of the Sacred Realm and started attacking people!"  
  
"Hmmf." mumbled Posie under her breath. "That'd really be saying something for my daddy…"  
  
"WELL?" Krissi caught Posie's mumblings short. "What do you say, HUH? Will you prove it to us?"  
  
"Well, you see, I uh, gulp…"  
  
"Make sure he's here, on this very spot, in two week's time." said Tony, walking up in front of Posie and pointing his finger at the ground. "That is, if he truly is as cool as you say he is."  
  
Seeing Posie struggle, Miss Claire caught the opportune time. She picked up her cow bell, and began to jingle it idly—  
  
"Class Dismissed. See you all tomorrow." 


	2. Link

Spinning Slash, Chapter 2: Link  
  
Icy arrows pounded at the windowpane, shattering into tiny drops that ricocheted back, out into the storm. A snap of lightning, followed by a bellow of thunder, indicated further the ferocity of the monsoon raging outside.  
  
Sighing a distressed sigh, Miss Claire gazed out the window, twirling her creamy brown curls around her first finger. Her breathing was uneasy, and she took another fleeting glance out the window. Moaning once more, she tore her thoughts away from the outside and turned to the(mostly drenched) crowd inside her small schoolhouse, and then at the two unaccompanied five-year-olds standing below her.  
  
"Gee," she grumbled, "I certainly do hope your fathers get here OK. are you absolutely positive that they're coming?"  
  
"Positive. They wouldn't let us down." testified Elaine with assurance.  
  
"Well, I trust you two. but do you think they'll make it here alright? That's one pretty mean storm out there." She pointed her thumb behind her at the window, outside which a tempest raged.  
  
"Ehh, he'll bring an umbrella." mused Elaine.  
  
"He's seen worse." was Posie's only reply.  
  
"I hope so. this is the first time in my career that a child, let alone two children, have had their parents come after them like this. usually it's a package deal."  
  
"Well, um."  
  
Posie, however, was left without a good reply this time.  
  
Miss Claire took another glance at the hoard of children and their parents, milling about with nowhere better to go. She had planned for this to be a gala outdoors event, but the strain of bad weather had forced everyone inside. Storms like this were typical in Hyrule at this time of year, especially in Kakirio Village-for some reason, the creaky old windmill near the graveyard seemed to attract them like a magnet. She mused that the strange music drifting up from its interior had something to do with it.  
  
A sudden crack exploded outside, and at first one might mistake it for thunder. But a sudden blast of cold air-from the now opened door- indicated otherwise.  
  
A figure, silhouetted against the rapidly darkening sky, stood in the doorway, a long raincoat draped around his shoulders. He was tall, at least six foot three, and his overlarge feet clomped like horses' hooves as he strode in. Humongous footprints, each a foot in length at least, stained the perfect pink carpet. He pivoted quickly, and shut the door to avoid the storm from coming inside and dampening the crowd further.  
  
The man rose his rough, worn hands, and pulled the brown hood of his raincoat back down to his neck. He shook his short brown hair, sending tiny droplets scattering everywhere. He opened his eyes, which were like deep chocolate pools sitting in his face. From his size, large feet, and deep eyes, she could tell he was most certainly not Posie's father, he had to be Elaine's.  
  
The man knelt, sending his coat sliding off his shoulders and onto the floor. He wore a deep crimson shirt, with long denim pants, and his hair was thick but cut off above his elongated Hyrulian ears. He looked up into Miss Claire's face, and his hawk-like nose was red with cold.  
  
"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Claire." he said kindly. He picked up her hand, and stood himself up. "I'm Randal Jacob Parkerstine, Elaine's dad, but, you can call me Randy." He shook her hand wildly, and she tremored as if she was stranding on a fault line in the middle of an earthquake.  
  
"W-w-well it is a p-p-pleasure to m-m-meet you, M-M-Mr. P-P- Parkerstine, b-b-but would y-y-you happen to know the whereabouts of your daughter's friend Posie's f-f-father?"  
  
Randy released his grip on Miss Claire's hand. "Hmm, him? Nope. Haven't seen him. But you'll love him, he's a great guy-fun-loving, witty, extremely kind. well, once you meet him, you'll understand."  
  
"I hope so." grumbled Miss Claire, slightly dizzy.  
  
"No, really! Just take my word for it! I swear, honest! I've met him, 'es a good friend of mine!"  
  
"Oh, I believe you, I believe you!" Miss Claire rubbed her aching forehead. "I just wish I knew when he was coming, I don't think I have much more patience left and neither do the other parents!"  
  
"He'll be along, don't you worry. I'm betting either he got caught in the storm, or his boss saddled him with a last-minute job." Randy coughed, but his chuckles were unmistakable under his hacking.  
  
Miss Claire was curious who he worked for, but she decided to keep her nose out of such business until he did come. She was, indeed, very eager to meet him-with her odd name, small size, and unusual attitude, Posie was an enigma herself, and her father, if she was anything like him, was bound to be an interesting man.  
  
Tony slunk away from his mother, who was busy chatting with a boy named Quince's mom, and stole over to Posie's side.  
  
"Well, midget, I'm impressed. You actually managed to get your dad to come. I would think you'd be too scared to ask him."  
  
Posie sneered at him, but did not respond.  
  
"Now we can all see just how goofy he really is, no matter what you say. We'll all know where you get it from!" Tony laughed maliciously, and Posie burned hot in the face. He was insulting her father! Well, she figured, she'd be the one with the last laugh. After all, he was.  
  
A blinding streak of lightning flew across the sky, revealing a strange figure approaching. It strode briskly in front of the window, showing only a blurred green outline. All heads cocked to see who was nearing, when the door flung open.  
  
A somewhat short, yet lanky figure hung in the door, its head pointed downward, looking about the room. There did seem to be a point on top of its head, like a person in a cloak, but the figure didn't appear to be wearing one. The person's feet were small, and something rather bushy stuck out to one side of the person's shadowed face. The only sign that the face was, indeed, a living face and not a stone statue, were two glittering points beneath the large, bushy object.  
  
The person attempted to take a single step inside, sending one leather shod foot over the threshold, but it somehow missed its mark entirely and he stumbled, flailing his arms about wildly, until finally coming down with a thump on the plush carpet.  
  
Everyone gasped when they saw the man's face, for it was familiar to all in the room. The only persons whose mouths remained closed were Posie's and Elaine's, Posie's because she was frowning slightly, and Elaine's because she was on the verge of breaking up with laughter.  
  
He propped himself up on his long, flannel-wrapped arms, and lifted his head. His sapphire eyes twinkled with foreign anticipation, and his thick, golden blonde hair was plastered with sopping rain, his bushy bangs sticking out ungainly to the side. His tiny, pointy nose was as red as Randy's had been, and his tight mouth was twisted into a thin grimace as he came to his feet. He brushed off his forest green tunic with his gauntlet- covered hands, and took a quick glance up at the crowd gawking at him.  
  
"Oh." said Link, with surprise that, for some reason, seemed only half sincere. "I'm sorry. Did I barge in on your little gathering here? Real sorry, folks. I was just out looking for this house where I'm supposed to meet someone, top secret government business, strictly hush-hush, y'know. and of all the crazy things, I thought this place was it. Isn't that just, y'know, too nutty?" He leaned over, against a case of shelves.  
  
"What is he doing?" mumbled Posie into her arms, now trying to hide her face.  
  
"Well, I just barged on in, expecting a group of top warriors, and I ended up here. Weird, huh? But, no need to worry, folks, it was just an accident."  
  
"Oh no." grumbled Posie, putting her hands up in front of her face. "This had better not be what I think it is."  
  
"I'll bet it is." Elaine grumbled to Posie back.  
  
"Oh yeah?" Randy challenged. He took one long, sliding step over to Link, giving him an odd look. "An accident, hey? I doubt it. imposter!"  
  
"Hey, who are you calling an imposter, punk?" Link growled menacingly at Randy.  
  
"My dad's not that dumb, it has to be. Oh no. Once everyone realizes. we'll be the laughingstocks of the whole kindergarten!" Elaine was beginning to cry.  
  
"I'll bet you've been sent by Gannon! An assassin bent on destroying us all and the whole village!" Randy fired his scorns.  
  
"You're positively insane!" Link's voice was beginning to take on the air of an enraged lion.  
  
"You can't be the real Link! He would never come barging in here, he would know what this place was! He can READ ya know! There's a big sign! So just give in so we can take you over to the dungeons of Hyrule Castle!"  
  
"How DARE you accuse the Hero Of Time so!"  
  
"Ha! Don't give up easily, do you? What am I s'possed to do, hold a contest of skill to prove that you're not the real Link?" Randy's voice was loaded with sarcasm.  
  
"Yeah!" came a sudden rush of outcries from most of the children, excluding Posie and Elaine. "Con-test! Con-test! Con-test!"  
  
Link and Randy suddenly stared at each other, bewildered. Link mouthed something at Randy, but he just shrugged in reply.  
  
"Whoa there!" Miss Claire suddenly found the nerve to intrude on the scrimmage between Link and Randy. She brushed the observing throng away with her arms to make her way towards the two of them.  
  
"Look," she said to them in the tone she often took one when dealing with the small, kindergarten children, "you're both sensible, grown men-so why can't you handle this like them? I am confident both of you are who you claim to be, but it seems like the children-"  
  
"Con-test! Con-test!" Several definitively older voices had now joined the calls.  
  
"-And their parents-both want to see a bit of a competition between you two. So, why not? I mean, it would be fun, and would probably settle this dispute. So, what do you say?"  
  
Both Link and Randy just swiveled their heads and stared at each other, looks of positive confusion laid out upon their faces. They both turned to Miss Claire and nodded simultaneously, looking as if they were a couple of dolls bobbing their heads in sync.  
  
"Well, since they demanded it, I think your audience should choose what you do-just leave me out of this from this point forward, please?"  
  
Link and Randy nodded in sync again, looking positively grim this time.  
  
"Well, you can take it from here then-like I said, I want no part of this."  
  
Once more with synchronized motions, the two of them wheeled around to face the acclaiming crowd.  
  
Under their breaths, Link and Randy started to mumble to each other softly.  
  
"What the heck are we s'pposed to do now?" This was Randy's comment.  
  
"Don't look at me, this was your idea." Link growled at him through clenched teeth.  
  
"Well, I didn't mean it! This wasn't s'pposed to happen!"  
  
"I know it, I know it! Just. think of something, before they eat us up!"  
  
"OK, Ok! Just gimmie a sec. hmm. AH-HA!" He exclaimed the last part rather resoundingly.  
  
"What, what?" came the clamor of voices.  
  
"You tell us what to do, we do it. Whoever does it better by your standards, wins. Make it. three out of five. In other words, in case you don't understand, we'll have five matches, and whoever wins three of them is the winner! Sound good?"  
  
"Yeah!" came the chorus of voices.  
  
"Well, then, it's up to you. What'll be first?"  
  
*******************  
  
The needles of ice continued to pound on Link's head, but if it was dodgeball they wanted, it was dodgeball they'd get. Many years ago, he had told a group of kids how good he was at the game. and he wasn't about to let them down. Almost six years ago, in fact. A little more. It had been about six months after Ganon, and that whole ordeal had been seven, seven unbelievable years ago. fourteen if you counted that one incident with the Ocarina of Time that went unnoticed by the populous.. His breath clung to the air, and his skin was starting to pop up with goosebumps, but he wasn't about to let a little rainy frost get him down.  
  
Why, of all days, did it have to be today? He wondered this to himself. So cold, and wet. why not a warm, sunny day? The kind of day that made you feel like celebrating for no good reason, except that you were feeling joyful? The kind of day when you had a rainbow sitting on your shoulder! But he had made a promise. and he wouldn't break it. He wasn't in the mood to let a single kid there down, including the one. well, just including everybody. But he hoped he'd win, for the sake of that one.  
  
Tony, standing in the middle of the court, spun the large red ball on his finger like a basketball. He seemed to have taken over and was orchestrating the whole thing. His young mother, with deep, black, almost unnatural eyes and ebony hair, stood behind him, watching him with what appeared to be a sense between pride and exasperation. But something, something in the boy's eyes indicated loss of some unknown patience, like he was waiting for some grand even that either had not come or was taking its sweet time. All of the children had a similar look, but Link reasoned that, more or less, it had to do with dodgeball.  
  
"Alright." Tony commanded in his boisterous voice. "Round one? Dodgeball. Link versus Mr. Parkerstine. Rules are simple: Link'll throw, Mr. Parkerstine dodge, then switch. Each hit counts as one point, and hits above waistline don't count. First guy to score 10 points on the other one wins. Oh, and, by the way, no getting help from anybody else, no 'random people running in to trip the dodger,' or the thrower, or whatever. This is their match! Ready. Set. GO!!!"  
  
With an amazing arm, Tony launched the ball onto the court, and Link scooped it up before its second bounce. He began to dribble the ball, and Randy feinted to the right to avoid Link's left-handed throw.  
  
From the back of the crowd, Posie and Elaine watched with uneasiness.  
  
"This is so not good." Elaine mumbled to her friend.  
  
"Couldn't they have at least said something when they came, without diving into this?" Posie hung her head and shook it in shame.  
  
"How about mentioning it beforehand and not springing it on everybody? For those guys, it's a riot, but back on our end of the spectrum."  
  
"Tell me about it." mumbled Posie, staring up at Elaine. "Even though I have no clue what a 'speck-trum' is."  
  
"Ask Mr. Green after he realizes what he's doing."  
  
Posie gave her a glaring look, but remained silent.  
  
There was the hard smack of cold rubber on skin for the fourth time, and Tony began to wave his arms about wildly.  
  
"Alright, switch out, switch out!" He began to bustle the two competitors about like a heard of cattle, and Link and Randy thought darkly about how little respect he had for his elders. Probably, for anyone.  
  
Link handed the ball off to Randy, and somehow found a few moments to whisper in Randy's ear, "Watch the right leg, still recovering from a Dodongo's scratch there."  
  
"I know, I know!"  
  
The second round of the game began, but Link was far too agile on his small(compared to Randy's) feet. He even managed an impressive backflip over a shot, that had most of the crowd in unhindered "oohs" and "ahhs."  
  
"Well, with any luck, my dad'll lose. not that I don't support him, do I ever, but."  
  
"Understood." Posie didn't even need Elaine to finish her sentence.  
  
The two switched their positions again ,and Link scored six more smacks to Randy with the ball, winning the first game. Very few people were surprised, but they cried Link on anyway. They would be able now to see the next test of power. But Link was glad-he had won, and hadn't let anybody down, except maybe Elaine. But at least he hadn't been bragging when he said he was good at dodgeball.  
  
Tony grumbled-he had been secretly been cheering Randy, even though the ref wasn't supposed to be biased-and called everyone else to attention.  
  
"OK! One win to Link, zero to Mr. Parkerstine. NEXT GAME!"  
  
"What will that be?" asked Link, hoping whatever it was could be played inside.  
  
"Volleyball."  
  
"Oh no." Link moaned. Not another outside sport!  
  
"Follow me." Tony commanded, and beckoned everyone over to a large net set out over the other side of the court. Link hadn't known it would be used for anything regarding them, but, more than likely, it had been set out beforehand and had been conveniently cited in the small group powwow that the students had performed-which, Link had noticed- excluded Posie and Elaine.  
  
The large group strode over to the court, children giggling and pointing, adults griping about the chill, and Miss Claire hanging behind in the nice, warm classroom that would have certainly been a better choice for such an event on such a day.  
  
"Alright." Tony said, explaining the rules as he walked, "Quite simple. Link on one side, Mr. Parkerstine on the other. No surprises there. Since Link won last game, Mr. Parkerstine gets to serve first. Ball bounces more than twice on opponent's court, that's a point for you. We go by five this time-first person to get five points wins. I presume you both know the basic rules of this game in general?"  
  
"We know, we know." mumbled Randy. "You don't have do be so impatient!"  
  
"Alright then! TO YOUR RESPECTIVE SIDES!"  
  
If Tony could be this bossy with adults, Link wondered, what was he like with the other kids? He shuddered at the thought of how he might have bullied the others. But, this was not the time to worry-it was gametime. He hustled over to one of the marked sides, preparing for the serve.  
  
"How did this happen?" Elaine grumbled under her breath to Posie.  
  
"I dunno, what do you think?! More importantly, though, why did this happen?"  
  
"I know for a fact it wasn't my dad's idea-he never comes up with crazy stuff like this on his own! It had to be Mr. L-I-N-K."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"L-I-N-K! That spells LINK, duh!"  
  
"You know I'm not that good with spelling yet! I can read better than most of the other kids including you, but not spelling!"  
  
Elaine sighed. "Well, I also know they were hoping to do something dramatic, yet funny-only it doesn't come off as funny on the ends they intended!"  
  
"I'm sure not laughing."  
  
SLAP!!!  
  
Immediately, the two of them turned their heads from their conversation. A satisfying smack had echoed across the landscape only a second before.  
  
Painfully, Link removed his hand from his face. He wasn't sure if his nose was bleeding or not-it felt swollen, but he had not, yet, tasted anything hot and metallic-flavored in his mouth. He turned up to face Randy, and he shook his head in confirmation. Link had definitely gotten slammed in the face with the ball, and it most certainly hurt, but no serious damage was done-a good sign.  
  
"You can take that point, Randy-I kept my eye on the ball well enough, but the ball just had to keep itself on my eye, as well. I was just being clumsy. Go ahead. One Randy, zero me."  
  
No one seemed even the least bit surprised that Link knew Randy's first name. In fact, most people didn't even seem to notice it.  
  
The game continued. Link managed to score a point on Randy, but Randy scored two more to counterstrike. Volleyball, it certainly seemed, was clearly not Link's area of expertise, but Randy did appear to have an upperhand.  
  
With a powerful spike, Randy slammed the ball down hard on Link's side of the court, and Link had to jump to the side to avoid being hit as it ricocheted. It fell to the court, meaning another point had been scored for Randy. Link grumbled about the cold impairing his skill, but launched it back over anyway. With the speed of a cheetah, Randy leapt and was able to return the serve with ease. Link made an attempt to catch the ball with his right hand, but as he was very much the opposite of right- handed, the awkwardness of having to use his non-dominant hand made him fumble and drop the ball.  
  
"GAME!" Tony bellowed. "MR. PARKERSTINE FIVE, LINK ONE! GAME TO MR. PARKERSTINE!"  
  
The audience cheered and applauded, and Link, disappointed, slunk down and away to avoid further embarrassment.  
  
It was then that he noticed Posie, sad and forsaken, hanging in the very back of the crowd with Elaine.  
  
"He-WOAH!" Link had attempted to wave, but something had tugged him from behind by the rim of his tunic-the something known as Tony.  
  
"No time! No time! NEXT GAME!!!"  
  
Link had a wrenching feeling deep in his stomach on what that kid was going to be like when he grew up.  
  
"Now." he lead his two competitors forward. "You're both tied, one to one. If you stay deadlocked on the next two games as well, the final one will be, ultimately, the tiebreaker. You got that?"  
  
"Yes." Link and Randy replied at the same moment, as if they were the children and Tony was the all-knowing adult.  
  
"Good. Now, I know how forsaken you are about having to play out in the cold and rain like this."  
  
"Yeah?" Also simultaneously, the brightened at the prospect of being removed from the rain.  
  
"Well, too bad! The next game's outside also. So deal with it!"  
  
Link didn't know if it was just him, but he was starting to feel awfully put down.  
  
"Now. for an intriguing game by the name of Four Square." Tony didn't even turn his back to speak to the two adults following him.  
  
"Hey, hey, don't you need four people to play Four Square?" Link was beginning to recognize the doubts he'd been having since his pal had announced, a week and a half back, "Hey, I've got a great idea that's bound to be hilarious!" He shook his head in annoyance, but no one took heed-they were too anxious either to see the outcome of this ridiculous match-up, or to see it over, period.  
  
"Ehh, well, two square, then. I'd make it Four Square, but Link just ended up here on accident-nobody with him. Riiiiiiiiiiight?"  
  
Link opened his mouth to reply, but, as he was raising his finger to answer, he heard a tiny, familiar voice, panic stricken and with the air of somebody desperately praying to every god and goddess she knew, frantically crying to herself: "Don't answer, don't answer, please, don't answer."  
  
"Erm. of course!" Link's reply seemed even a little too exuberant. "After all, who. who is there to come with? I'm just a lone Wolfos warrior. right? Right?"  
  
His grin was overly cheeky and somewhat suspicious.  
  
"Whatever." Tony brushed his hand at the frigid air as he stormed ahead.  
  
"Now." Tony, Randy and Link now stood at the edge of a white-painted court, four adjoining squares lined up and by their sides perfectly for the game of Four Square, which involved trying to make your opponents miss catching the ball-but they had to genuinely miss, it couldn't hit them. Link gulped, for, though he knew he could play, he doubted his ability. He had never really played before.  
  
Randy nudged Link in the side as they approached the court. "Psst. how's about letting me win this one? You know, they already worship you ENOUGH."  
  
"What? No way, you freak!" Link laughed quietly and good-naturedly, giving Randy a small nudge towards the large tree. "Your stupid idea has already given me enough trouble! I don't need any more!"  
  
"Well, I certainly hope it's given you enough time to think!"  
  
"Thinking? Aww, I gave up on that years ago!" Link chuckled as Randy shoved him back playfully. "But seriously, what about?"  
  
"Oh, I don't know, how about only how you're going to break it to the kids?!?!" Randy was very stern and strict now, giving Link a glare and a fearsome growl.  
  
Link gasped, pulling his breath back with a vacuum effect. "Oh no! I completely forgot about that! Oh, no, no no, what the Gel am I gonna."  
  
"WE'RE HERE!" Tony shouted far above the clashing of the thunder, and the twittering conversation behind his heels. The two automatically snapped to attention. Having both served in the Hyrulean Military, they could both compare him to one or two commanding officers they'd seen. Link was reminded not-so-fondly of his coworker and [forced] opposite leader, Igre Rendelholfe, Hyrule's Minister of War. That gorilla of a man was always bossing Link around with no respect to the fact that they were supposed to be working WITH, not AGAINST, each other.  
  
"Alright, are we all set back there?" Tony turned his head around to take a look at the pair of grown men hobbling after him like a pair of newborn ducklings. "You know what to do, correct?"  
  
"Of course." Randy nodded at Tony, and gave him a thumbs-up.  
  
"No duh, little man." Link tried to do the same, but got that cheesy, dubious type look again. Something wasn't right around him; Tony could very well sense Link's unease. Perhaps he was only nervous about the game ahead, that was very well a possibility. But it seemed to have an air above that, like he was hiding something.  
  
Yeah, right. Link thought to himself. I know what to do. Pah, I wish.  
  
Discreetly, he shook his head in shame, sorrow, and utter confusion.  
  
***********************  
  
Leaning against the bookcase, Posie sighed with helplessness. How she had survived through these remaining three rounds, she was clueless. Something she'd inherited, she supposed. Natural endurance. Yeah, natural endurance. If only this were natural. But there was just something. oh, I don't know, out of the ordinary, about seeing her best friend's father, with his great size, pretty much kneeling down inside one of the kindergarten chairs, hunched over the low, kindergarten table and the checkerboard that lay upon it.  
  
Stalemate. That's how it had lasted, for what seemed to have been going on for half an hour. Impatience was catching like the flu among the crowd. And in her, though it was more likely she was the vector. Along with Elaine. After Link had made a come-from-behind Four Square victory, he was nailed flatly by Randy once again in a match of two-on-two basketball. The man simply had a pure advantage of height in that game. Now had come the surprise tiebreaker, a match of checkers mercifully inside. Tony, the ref as always, peered with and eagle eye at the leathery hands of the two men competing. He was dearly hoping to catch a cheater in the act, but it seemed like the giants in fame and size were simply too civil to stoop to such tactics. Nobody was enjoying this any more. Couldn't they just give up?  
  
Link's mind clearly wasn't on the game.  
  
His palms sweated as, without even looking, he shifted one of his pieces to a spot that allowed Randy to accomplish a triple-jump. His eyes darted about aimlessly; to the back of the room most often; to the ceiling, then only swiftly down at the black-and-red square below. Winning didn't matter at all now, what mattered was making it through what came afterwards. Winning or losing, it couldn't change what he had to state, sooner or later, champ or no champ. But how? Was it going to make sense, in his twitchy state? Would anyone believe it, regardless? This didn't look like it would come out in his favor. Nor did the game. Why not just stop now, and say it?  
  
But think of how stupid you'd look. His brain, programmed into an overly logical state(Blast that Navi), was analyzing every imaginable pro and con. Mostly con. What ridicule would come to him? To them? What sort of scarring to his reputation? He hated it all now. The whole plan. He'd always know it, but the sweetalk slipping from his friend's lips had convinced him to overcome his own common sense: Telling the truth is always easier than lying. Telling the truth is never having to remember what you've said.  
  
His eyes somehow slipped back to the game laid out before him, and they nearly popped out of their sockets. He wasn't at all sure how he had come to notice it right away, but there it was-Randy's last move had been so unbearably stupid, many of his own paled in comparison. A chain of leaps had been established that, if Link took it, he would eliminate all but Randy's last two kings, lurking back on his side of the board where they had been crowned. It was so simple, it was easy. All he had to do was make that jump. Voila, game good as over, it ended quickly, he won, was worshipped a little, then he sat down and calmly explained the whole ordeal. Cool and collected, laying out the story as basically as possible.  
  
Great. Now he just had to make that move. Simple, right? Just pick up the wooden disk, move it over the black pieces, and move them off the board. Nothing to it. Wait, no, wait-where did that move go again? He panicked. Ah, there it was. All he needed was to touch that piece. Just touch it. Just make his trembling hand move forward. Then, just clasp the piece-he dropped it!  
  
Link Hiro Blade, you're letting your nerves rule you! Snap out of it! Link used his thoughts like a slap to his mind, urging himself to wake from his skittish trance. Pretend. you're fighting a fierce Dodongo. A giant STONE Dodongo. Who won't eat any bombs. But then, gazing at the carved black pieces that belonged to Randy, he saw that the only bomb-like objects in view were his opponent's checkers. He scratched his forehead and made a new reach.  
  
There. Solid wood, beneath his fingers. A rough, even grip. Like a sword hilt. That's it. A sword hilt. You can hold a sword; no problem. Now, wave the sword! That's it! You're demonstrating. A complicated move. You're under scrutiny; heavy scrutiny. She has her eye on you. Even though she's never seen this one, she can tell when things don't go the way you expect by the dulling of your eyes and the tightness in your face. So loosen up. Be graceful. This may be the one time you REALLY have to get this right. Now, you ease on, into one of your stories. Back before you were born, when Ganondorf ruled all of Hyrule, a fierce fire once sprung up in the very spot in Kakariko Village where your feet are now.  
  
"And this is strategical how?" Randy grumped as Link's hand hovered over the board, checker in hand. He didn't realize that he had been holding it there in mid air for almost a minute, and he had even started mumbling the little tale about the fire to himself as he prepared to place the red disk back down.  
  
"Sorry." At least Link's mind was clear now; he could refocus on the game.  
  
Place it down, lift it over, place it down, lift it over, place it down, lift it over, place it down. As if he was chopping through water, he slowly swept all three black checkers off to his side of the table. Then he, for the first time in the hour or so since they'd arrived, he looked Randy directly in the deep brown eyes and said, without the slightest hint of incredulity or worry, "it's your turn." Like he had finally, after five rough and tumble rounds, come to accept this man who he seemed to have been brought to by fate. For those observing the game, with the exceptions of those two, of course, it had been since they had arrived. But for those two, and for Link and Randy themselves, it had been since three years ago when a similar problem had sent them together searching, together finding, and together laughing once the troubles had passed. Two oddball friendships, and yet four firmest of friends. So under the Goddesses' order it passed, as they said in Hyrule. The Hyrulean version of "That's how the ball bounces."  
  
Elaine rocked on the balls of her feet. She bit her lower lip in her small spot of nervousness. Link could very well win this last game and the contest to boot. She sniffed the air, and caught a small, familiar, subtle whiff of something warm and fresh. No hiding it from her nose, she thought. Mrs. B's best peanut butter cookies with chocolate frosting. Too bad she was allergic to peanuts. Those cookies were her very favorite food. It was only by chance she had ever tasted them, and once she had, she had made up her mind to taste them again. Every once in a while, when Posie had one or two to spare with dessert, she would break off a little piece for friend to sample. It was torture, not being able to just grab up a handful and wharf them down. But, genetics had not been nice to her. Not nice at all, a sudden very sharp undertone cut through her thoughts, as she reached behind her to feel the back of her neck where the large birthmark started.  
  
Maybe, she thought, it wouldn't hurt, not at all, to just go up and sort of ask, just edgewise, if she could have a cookie, or a little bit of one. Link was a nice fellow, after all. He knew about her allergies, but even he couldn't withstand if she gave him puppy dog eyes and whimpered a little. For someone with such a sharp tongue, she played the innocent act very well. An innocent act impossible to resist. So she could have a cookie. Or a little piece of one. Just a little. Just enough to satisfy her craving. Though, truth be told, their probably wouldn't be enough peanut butter cookie with chocolate frosting in the whole world to do that.  
  
"Posie, I'm going to go and beg some. PB and CF at ten 'o clock. Catch you in a sec."  
  
"I thought I smelled their distinctive smell. Do it quiet, OK? And remember, your daddy's right there."  
  
"I know, I know." Ducking her head down to the floor, Elaine tried to be inconspicuous as she scuttled over to Link's side.  
  
What happened at that moment was a blur for the most part, and for those farthest from the action; parents and their children sitting off to the sides, as far as possible from the checker board, it seemed to simply jump from peaceful tranquility to utmost chaos. But if one was right there, part of the inner ring of the tightly pressing crowd of spectators, there was a definite transition. It all happened so very fast, one could hardly remember what happened, especially after the mind-numbing conclusion reached after the case fell. But, for those on the scene, most particularly Posie herself, a general agreement can be reached that it happened somewhat like this:  
  
The cookie-craving Elaine, hungry for a taste of the tabooed sweat bread, snuck up in an unsuspecting way on the deeply concentrating Link. Maybe Elaine was too sneaky or Link too deep in thought, but Link had not noticed her approach, and Elaine had not noticed that he did not notice. And with his thoroughly burnt nerves, one tap on the shoulder was enough to send him screeching. His hands flung up, completely disrupting the game and giving him a sweep of reverse momentum. He was upended from his chair as he fell back, his legs flailing and kicking the light, wooden table. Now, though at times they may seem twiggy, Link's legs are actually quite powerful, and one might even goes as far as to say they are muscle- bound. If Link had a weapon other than his fabled sword and quick bow, it might as well have been his mighty kick. An ample amount of force was transferred from that unexpected kick to that table, and went flying. The immense bulk that was Randy was forced to duck, and there was a great commotion as the small table shattered into a million splinters as it rammed the bookcase at a great velocity.  
  
The bookcase began to wobble.  
  
All those in the general area were quite suddenly in immediate danger. Men and women ushered their dawdling children away from the now violently rocking shelves, praying to each of the Goddesses for the safety of the little ones. Some even dared to mumble a curse or two under their breaths, though, because they did take care not to poison the precious minds of their sons and daughters, many of those curses were in the ancient Hylian language. Tony's dark-haired mother, normally large eyes now positively dilated with fright, uttered a little cry of "Oh!" as she gave Tony a small shove from the backside out of the way. Instinctively, back where the table had once been, Randy reached over and put his arms tightly around Elaine, not letting herself squirm free and into the potentially hazardous zone again.  
  
The radius around the toppling case was bleak, with the exception of one, miniscule, fifteen inch girl with golden hair, sapphire eyes, and a green tunic. She was all alone, and paralyzed with fear. There was no doubt her tiny body would be thoroughly crushed by the toppling mass of the chest, severely injuring and quite possibly killing her. Elaine watched, blind-eyed, as the only friend whom she had ever had, in all of her short, infant life, stood before impending doom. The ever strong Randy seemed now a fragile man of glass, and both seemed to be both fixed upon Link. His jaw hung slack; he was lost in a maelstrom of his own mind. He had to act. Despite the great amounts of weight that case could still press upon his body, he, unlike the child, could withstand it. He knew what he had to do. There was no arguing out of it.  
  
Link made a great lunge forward, with his arms tight against his torso as if he were breaking free of the grasp of some fatal vines that had started creeping around his chair and that had been holding him down. He then spread those arms wide as he both fell and dove as the bookcase finally found its way out of its base of support and was collapsing altogether. Perhaps it was somewhat over-dramatic; but that was Link, always having to put up a good show for it. Like a giant clamp sweeping out of the heavens, he swiftly grabbed the child and pressed her up close to his chest as away the two of them tumbled. The carpet did not prove very good to slide upon, but nevertheless it was in the blink of an eye that they were safely out of harm's way and onto a bare patch of carpeting. The bookcase fell with an almighty crash that could very well have sent a small quake through all of Kakariko, and the pair clad in green simultaneously released their breaths into heavy, ragged gasps. Link was bent over the carpet, down on his knees, looking fearfully down at the small, trembling bundle he had scooped into his limbs.  
  
Posie could not state, in a million words, how very comforting it was to be back in those noble, and yet familiar, arms one more. Even since her first day on earth, something was embedded within her to tell her that nothing could come close to her in the depths of that grip. She closed her eyes, wishing with all her might that she could simply break down and cry, a relief-ridden stream that away with it flowed every trouble from that day. She buried her face in the deep green folds of the tunic, inhaling great breaths of the familiar air of her sweet forest with the spicy undercurrent of Hyrule's majestic landscape. With her elfin ear, flattened up against the smooth, warm cloth, she could both hear and feel his heart beating. And it was not the ravaging, steady throb of a great warrior; it was the same as any man's who was terrified for the sake of someone he loved dearly, loud and quick. Loud and quick. So very misperceived, this marshmallow of a man was.  
  
She lifted her head. All around, drops of bulging eyes peered and prodded, inquiring silently, "is she alive?" Her bejeweled watch returned, "alive, but terrified." Not that some could care. Although, most curiously, even Tony seemed even a mote worried as he looked from behind his mother's legs at the girl most suddenly and miraculously rescued by the greatest hero ever known to their world. Perhaps a small bit of jealousy smoldered within his soul. Perhaps he did genuinely care, and all of his banter was merely a ruse. Or maybe it was only basic human inquisition, the need to know everything and everything. Whatever was the case, he still sat emotionless as her little blue eyes skipped to the deep abyss of Elaine's.  
  
Wakened from the bored haze at her desk, Miss Claire was now stumbling over the numerous underfoot kindergartners and strewn objects to make her way over to the hunched-over Link, clutching a Posie who was just waking from the trance of her horror. She had intended to wait until she had reached the odd-looking duo before she began her inquisition, but the words were racing from her lips as quickly as the bookcase had fallen. "Are you OK? Are you hurt? You aren't too scared, are you? That was amazing, Link, we don't know how we can ever repay you."  
  
"I've 'repaid' myself enough as is, Miss Claire, but thank you just the same. You are a kind woman, I can clearly see."  
  
"Well, that's nice of you, but at the moment I'd like a word with Posie. she that little girl you just now rescued."  
  
"I know." Most people assumed, naturally, that he meant that he knew that Miss Claire wished to speak with Posie. In truth, this was only partially right. But, right or half-right or not right at all, Link nodded and set the child down on the ground. Not seeming even the slightest bit fazed now, she toddled over to the young teacher, and said, most politely and as if nothing had just happened, "Yes, Miss Claire?"  
  
"Well. you seem to be alright now. so I guess we can skip that part of the conversation. but there is still a very serious matter at hand which we must discuss."  
  
"Yes?" Posie gazed up into Miss Claire's eyes as innocent as an angel, and it almost hurt her in the heart to talk to the little girl as seriously as she must. "Well. you know. it's been over an hour since Parent's day started, and. well. do you realize that your father hasn't yet showed up?"  
  
Posie made a strange face. "But what do you mean, Miss Claire? He's been here all this time. A long time."  
  
It was Miss Claire's turn to purse her lips in thought. "What do you mean, Posie? I haven't seen him. There's been no one in this school or schoolyard who even remotely seems to have been him."  
  
"But surely, you musta noticed him. Mommy says he and I look so ezactly alike, that if we were the same size you couldn't tell us apart. We've both got blue eyes and blonde hair, and out clothes."  
  
"No, Posie, I haven't seen another person with blue eyes, blonde hair, and a forest green-"  
  
Her jay instantly stopped moving, hanging down and open with shock. Her eyes no longer focused, they gazed almost through the child standing before her, at her rescuer behind. The one called Link, golden- haired, cobalt-eyed, and with that green tunic and hat they all knew so well. The Link. The famous Link. The Savior-of-Hyrule, Hero-of-Time Link.  
  
The family resemblance was unmistakable. 


	3. No Idle Tears

1 Spinning Slash, Chapter 3: No Idle Tears  
  
"What, are you a fish? Don't let your mouth hang open like that. It makes you look funny, Miss Claire."  
  
"Oh… I suppose… you're right…" at which she promptly closed her jaw.  
  
This has to be a dream, she thought to herself, a very strange and twisted dream. There was no way, in all of heaven and Hyrule, there could be even the least possible smidgens of relation between those two. None. She could list as many reasons as there were, she was sure. First, there was size. No one that small could have come from warrior blood. And let's not forget strength. Whether it was just another factor of being tiny or not, Posie was not very powerful. She could barely lift a small rock, it seemed. And who could possibly deny attitude? If children really did pick up things from their parents, then what could Posie have learned from him? No being brave. No smart-alec wisecracks. And she definitely hadn't gotten that babyish innocent way of asking questions from him.  
  
But those eyes…  
  
No. She firmly told herself no. It had to be a trick. Something to get back at the other kids for teasing her. She'd asked him to play the part. It was a joke; a gag. Posie's real father wasn't coming at all, she was sure, because Posie had expected everyone to fall for her marvelous little trick. Well, Adalia Claire wasn't falling for it, that was for sure. She could see right through this wonderful little trick. Besides, if it was true, then why had Randy freaked out when Link had appeared? Wouldn't they be acquaintances? At least remotely friendly with each other?  
  
"Well… I suppose the gig is up, isn't it?"  
  
Randy's deep throated growl jolted her back into reality with the effect of a bucket of ice water. The gig was up, causing her to give a sly little smile. So she was not alone among the intelligences. Finally, some other adult realized what was going on and was going to speak up. Good thing, since she would despise having to be the one to embarrass Posie in front of her peers. She had always thought Link was a bit too cocky for his own good. An exposé of his little sham would do him well. No blame on Posie, of course. Even in the worst of their times, she could never be too hard on a child.  
  
"Yeah. I s'ppose it is." Link vaulted himself up on his hands and brushed the dirt from the front of his tunic. He looked down at Randy, for quite possibly the first time in his life, and smiled. "But it was a good one, though. Too bad it had to foul up like that. It would have been hilarious."  
  
"Yeah." Unwittingly tightening his deathgrip around Elaine, causing her to cough from a slight lack of oxygen, he looked off dreamily at the back wall.  
  
No. Wait. This was very wrong. Very wrong. Link and Randy were partners? This had been some sort of joint effort? But then the whole episode that had started the contest had been an act. But that meant they knew each other. Which meant that they were friends. Which meant…  
  
"EEEEEYAAAAAH!" Hands flying high in the air, Miss Claire ran screaming to the door out into the playground, banged it open with a CRACK that exactly timed with a burst of lightning, and sprinted out into the freezing cold drench that tumbled from the sky.  
  
"What's her problem?" asked someone's father in the back. After Posie had been scooped up from beneath the tumbling shelves by Link, he had immediately turned back to his in-depth discussion of the weather with his wife. He quite clearly had no idea what had just taken place in the previous thirty seconds or so. It wasn't that he didn't care, it was just that he wasn't really interested in what Link did. As soon as he had seen that the girl was safe, as far as he could be concerned, the show was over.  
  
There was a vacuumed silence in the room for about a minute, and then the doorway swung open. Holding the door ajar with a stiff, goose-pimpled arm, Miss Claire had a tense, exhausted look on her face, tiredness pouring from her eyes and the deep sound of her breathing. Muddy, rain-soaked curls were flat against her scalp and loose hairs stuck out at odd ends. A black streak oozed down one of her cheeks, indicating that the mascara she had applied that morning had not survived the rivulets she had subjected herself to. She was pale, in a sickly sort of sense, except for her nose, which was glowing pink. She inhaled; exhaled; stuck her arms to her sides in one swift motion and promptly marched over to the fallen furniture.  
  
"Will someone please assist me to put this bookshelf back the way in belongs?"  
  
Her voice had an annoyed murmur to it with which Link did not care to mess; but he knew that as it was partially his fault, not lending a hand would be impolite. So he scurried away from Randy to the top of the shelf and gave it a vault from below.  
  
"Thank you." It was flat and somewhat curt, but a thank you was a thank you was a thank you. Miss Claire sighed and added her own measly bit of strength to shove up the shelves, not looking up at Link's slightly worried face.  
  
"Well, we certainly got off on a bit of a bad foot, didn't we?"  
  
Miss Claire gave her reply more to the floor than to Link himself. "I'll say."  
  
"That whole thing was really stupid of us… me an Randy…" The case settled back into its normal spot, an array of books and leftover splinters from the table's crash scattered below. "I mean… all we wanted to do was make people laugh. The whole… the whole contest thing was never supposed to happen. We planned for every imaginable thing that could wrong, or so we thought, and yet we never thought of that. If it were Posie and Elaine in our places, instead of us, I can almost guarantee you they would've caught that. I don't care how much smarter adults supposedly are, children are indefinitely wiser. They haven't developed a ridged, one-way way of thinking yet."  
  
"Perhaps."  
  
"I'm such an idiot sometimes." He groaned, more from emotional stress than anything else, slapping his arm against the case's newly roughened side and pressing his forehead into it. He sort of shook and rolled his head over that arm, eyes closed in contemplation. "Honestly, if I had one rupee for every time I've leapt before I've looked, I might as well be buying out Ebridane this minute. And you'd think everything, from consequences to pain to electrocution would have taught me by now…"  
  
Miss Claire's eyes widened a bit and she pursed up her lips at the last phrase in Link's sentence, but rather than ask by how he was electrocuted and what that had to do with making stupid decisions, she actually felt sorry for the big lunk and grumbled out something along the lines of a compliment. "Well, if it weren't for some of your hasty decisions, Hyrule might as well be a blackened cinder by now. I think you're mistaking some of your quick logic for bad choices. There's a great difference."  
  
"Yeah. If something good happens, it's quick logic. If something bad happens, it's a bad choice." Miss Claire winced at the tone at which Link almost snarled these words, and not because they were overly sarcastic. But because he sounded perfectly serious. Dead serious, in fact.  
  
Some people might refer to the obtaining of such information as a "stab in the chest." But Miss Claire could more accurately sum this up as a "slit to the throat:" a slowly dripping wound, starting out almost numb, the agony gradually increasing as more and more blood(or, in this case, realization) surged forth. With a gash in one's heart, one could quickly pass on in a matter of minutes. Likewise, one could much easier get over such "stab in the chest" understanding. But with a "slit in the throat," pain was ongoing, the damage caused never truly enough to kill instantly. Was it really possible that this magnificent hero, the great savior of this majestic kingdom, could be so negative and pessimistic? Goddesses be sent to the deepest abyss of the Dark World, who cared if the man was somehow in the bloodline of the tiniest child she had ever known? How in the world had he adapted such a dark train of thought?  
  
"You… you don't really mean that though, do you?"  
  
His arm dropped casually to his torso. His eyes were still fixated on the carpet beneath the soles of his boots. "In my business, that's the nearest thing you get to truth. 'Cuz let me tell you, in the world of the warrior, there isn't much to depend on as fact. I mean, look… about ninety percent of those guys in the army are single. They don't have families to keep them bogged down, no one extra to get upset if they somehow fall in combat. And the majority of those who do get married drop out, permanently. Most guys just can't take the anxiety of having to always come back to someone. And yet, look at me. Not only am I married, but I also have my daughter. I've only seen about five other guys in the ranks who have kids. Not counting Igre," he said, making an aimless side reference to the renowned Minister of War, "but then again, all of his sons are knights and his wife died recently. He doesn't even fight anymore, to my knowledge. Everything is status quo, and yet everything is defiant. The whole business contradicts itself."  
  
Well, Miss Claire certainly couldn't find a good reply to that! His argument seemed to be reasonable. And yet… well, he still didn't seem to be the sunniest fellow on the block. Every time she'd read about him or listened to talk of him or heard of his latest good deed, he was always portrayed as a cheerful, humorous, playful sort of fellow. Randy had even called him "fun-loving!" Was all that only a cover for his inner nature?  
  
Or vice-versa?  
  
"So… perhaps we should introduce ourselves properly, then." From the spectator's seat, the roles had reversed. Link now refused to give even so much as a glance upward, but Miss Claire gazed on, proud and steady. "I am Adalia Claire, the teacher of this school. Please look me in the eyes and tell me who you are."  
  
Link slowly raised his chin to stare ruefully into Miss Claire's stare. His head was almost, but not quite, level with hers, and he barely opened his lips as he spoke. His face was nearly covered by his loping bangs. "Oh, c'mon, you know who I am. Seriously. Link, Hero of Time, Savior of Hyrule. Mr. Mighty Warrior. The list goes on and on." He sounded as if he had been holding his nose to prattle of the list, like he was mocking his own title. Riddled with sarcastic awe. How different this man was proving to be, from everything she had heard! The gossip that danced from ear to ear across Hyrule had told her that Link was a proud one, glad to retell, in every bloody detail, how exactly he had conquered Ganon and saved Hyrule those many times. And yet, here was that same heap of flesh, blood and bone, going about his amazingly high rank in the Royal Court and supreme fame as though it were all some joke.  
  
"Well, to be honest, Link Hiro Blade, but, I'm sure you could at least figure out that last part by yourself. I mean, you know—Posie Blade, Link Blade… no, wait, that's backwards—Link Blade… no, hold on… oh, never mind. I think you get the picture."  
  
"Quite." Miss Claire was slightly bewildered, and therefore more subdued. She thought it might be best to adopt the same attitude, temporarily, as her conversational opponent. So she was slightly sarcastic, a bit aloof, and almost mumbling in her reply.  
  
"Yeah. You know, another thing I'm bad at it phrasing things. But, I suppose, when you're as stupid as me, that sort of thing is what comes naturally. I mean, look, the other day I did the most idiotic thing: I just decided randomly to throw myself at the floor."  
  
Play along with him, she urged himself. Warm him up before you cheer him up. "That is pretty dumb."  
  
"Yeah," he coughed—or was that a chortle?—back. "But what's even stupider is that I missed."  
  
Miss Claire's eyes widened; she drew back and placed her hand up against the side of the bookcase. Link snorted, make a few quick breaths, and raised his head high, laughing himself into hysterics. Was this some sort of grim emotional overload from some bad pun of a personal insult?  
  
"Ha… ah… ok, I'm fine." Link stopped, hand over his chest as he panted. "No, that's got to be the most idiotic thing I've ever done. That joke is so old that, next to it, Father Time looks like a baby."  
  
She could almost hear the comedy-club drumroll as several of the closer folks in the knot of people started to chuckle. She rolled her eyeballs at the terrible gag, but couldn't help but crack the wispiest traces of a smile. Now this was more like the Link she knew. Everyone had a dark side, she now politely reminded herself. A shadowy edge. A part of them that would never see the joyous light of day again and couldn't care less if it did. His was only breaking through for a moment, as everyone's did when depression creeped from its bed of balefire and slid into their soul. But the Link that was, an orb of light and happiness, could so quickly consume that pale shadow that hardly ever could it damage him, and never would it utterly destroy him. Now it shone as clear as daylight that the word "pessimism" wasn't even capable of being in his vocabulary. As she might have put it to the children, that earlier episode had just been a "sadness moment."  
  
"I don't suppose I can disagree, Mr. Blade, but it certainly does get glowing reviews." Ever expanding was that miniature smirk, now practically a grin that invaded both of her cheeks with swelling laughter. All the bad tempers that had fallen with the rain now shattered under the shaft of daystar that trickled through a rupture in the cloak of gray. Sparks of hope glimmered beneath the iris of every eye.  
  
"Oh, kindly, Miss Claire, do call me Link." Now his voice was lathered with faux culture, with a dollop of a faulty English accent. "After all, it's only what all my friends call me," plenty of sour emphasis on "friends." "And it's not like we're in any sort of formal occasion here."  
  
The grin shifted to one side of her face as she narrowed her eyes in (good humored) annoyance. "Fine then, Link, O Great One. You want fries with that?"  
  
He gave a modest snicker as he folded his arms and looked off into space. "I'd say this preface came off a good deal better than the one before. Wouldn't you?"  
  
"Much. Though I must state that you're little skit was certainly a mite more interesting that the normal parent's commence. Normally it's just hey, how do you do, I'm such-and-such's parent, then they go off to chat with the rest of the crowd until the games get under way. You at least provided a bit of entertainment."  
  
"Randy's idea, wouldn't 'cha know. The guy's full of 'em. One of his strong points. Perfectly compliments his weak spot. And that's that he's full of 'em."  
  
"Like you and your never-ending supply of terrible innuendoes?"  
  
"Yeah, exactly like… hey!"  
  
Miss Claire gave a soft snigger-breath, a sort of laugh that wasn't really one at all. Just a couple of breaths in a pattern like a giggle, an indescribable thing really. "Maybe you aren't such a bad fellow after all, Link. From what I've heard, Posie seems to like you well enough."  
  
"Yeah." Link gave a gentle, dreamy sort of smile, and turned around to where Posie had run off several minutes ago. She and Elaine had pulled out a box of wooden blocks and were building a tower with Randy, who could help them pile the squares and triangles as high as the ceiling presuming they could find enough of the colored shapes. "I mean, I don't want to sound like I'm bragging or anything—"—he shrugged—"—but man, she is one great kid. Really loves me. Well, yeah, so does just about every kid on this entire continent, but… because I'm me, not because I'm me."  
  
She was still mulling over the complexity of that statement as he continued. "I mean, she couldn't care less how many times I've saved Hyrule, or that I know the princess, or that I'm this super-powerful warrior dude who's got some ultimate destiny to be the champion of virtue as we know it. She cares that I'm there to wish her good night, or to read her that book she loves so much, or to play some game with her. Of course she admires what I've done, but… only because I'm her dad. If I weren't some relative of hers, she probably wouldn't care less."  
  
"You think so?"  
  
"I know so."  
  
"How can you probably know something?"  
  
"Don't ask me. Just call it instinct. I can tell eighty percent of the time exactly what's on her mind. She may often wear a padlocked cover, but once you get to know her you can read her like a book."  
  
"Really? Padlocked cover, eh? I've never seen the traces of anything of the like. Was always perfectly your exact opposite."  
  
Link returned a look that was almost smug. "Yeah, I know the routine of which you speak. Cowardly, timid, babyish little Posie, the perfect picture of innocence? What a great ploy. Couldn't have come up with a better one myself. How about outgoing, spunk-filled, wise beyond her years Posie who is attracted to trouble like a paper clip to a magnet? She hides behind that veil so even those who look beyond her size won't associate her and I. The whole fame thing never went well with her."  
  
Miss Claire could hardly believe her ears. What sort of gene affected the pools of this family, exactly? First, she finds Link making like some sort of depressed gothic poet, now she found Posie to really be some sort of dynamo. What was next? She massaged her forehead, making an "uhhg" noise in her throat and coughing. Still, she had to fight through her frustration and at least try to continue conversation. Breathe, her mind hissed, breathe.  
  
"Really? You'd have think should wold have gotten used to it, it being something she's always had to live with, right?"  
  
"Not always, Adalia, not always." She almost jumped a foot into the air at hearing someone other than her boyfriend Pejin use her first name. I've been working too hard at this job, she could feel her soul snigger. "My wife and I made the firm decision that we would not expose her to my fame until it was necessary and we thought her able to comprehend it. Most children would immediately assume that, because one of their parents was famous, it made them more special than others. Wouldn't you agree?"  
  
"It's an unfortunate truth," she sighed. "Posie always bragged about how wonderful you were, but... she never mentioned any first names, or said precisely why. It's almost a relief to find that you're… well… you. You catch my drift?"  
  
"I most certainly do, and I can sense the pervasion in your voice that indicates that you've dealt with the sort before."  
  
"Charles Rendelholfe…" She drooped her head, laughing with exhaustion. "That peacock; and I was unlucky enough to get stuck with him in my first year of teaching," she lamented. "Good old Igre's children certainly do take after their father…"  
  
"I have come to the conclusion that something in the Rendelholfe bloodline causes nearly all Rendelholfes to be conservative, cocky, and extremely narcissistic." His voice wavered a bit, and pulled out a casual, naïve expression. "But, don't ask me, I'm just biased because I have to work with the great rooster king of them all." He shrugged, almost as if to ask a question.  
  
"I pity you, but back to what we were saying…"  
  
"Ahh, yes, on how we handled the issue of my reputation… well, we managed to keep the hearsay from her ears for a good two years, I can tell you that. But, children will be children, and children will scamper off on their own, and children will hear things that they aren't supposed to." His expression fell as his eyes half closed. He lowered his speaking volume, versing confidential matters to Miss Claire and Miss Claire only.  
  
"One day she escaped from those entrusted to her care," sneezing something that sounded like Nhavihuh!, "and somehow managed to find her way, without being noticed, to the forest close by where we live. She happened to encounter a group of wandering hikers who had gone for an bit of an excursion to those Lost Woods and gotten, well, lost. They were talking among themselves, about the trip and the food they had brought, mostly, but also of a recent happening in which this very village had been retrieved from the grip of a particularly nasty rouge Wizrobe by a certain yours truly."  
  
"I remember that…" mused Miss Claire, comprehension-laden words denoting that it was fine for the man to proceed. "Had to evacuate the village, and most of the poor children were scared out of their wits. Thank the Goddesses none of them we hurt."  
  
"Well, you can imagine the curiosity that scrambled into her thoughts when she heard dear old Daddy had saved an entire village, so she ambled her way on back, got a telling off from her babysitters(who shall remain nameless), and then was pumping us full of questions the instant my wife and I returned back from our errand. Well, we just couldn't leave her wondering there!"  
  
She remained silent, but scrunched her face and pulled back her lips in an expression that spoke of pain.  
  
"So, we worked out an agreement with her that I would take her to Hyrule Castle Town so she could see a few things," Link told. "Luckily I have one of the quickest means of reaching the town pretty much permanently at my disposal, and it ends up in a fairly secluded place, too. Just so long as you don't try to go on a Sunday morning." Naturally, this means of reaching the town was through the Prelude of Light, and it would take its player straight to the Temple of Time should they wish. Of course, appearing straight in the middle of the hall in the middle of the Sunday service was certainly not going to get you any privacy, if not draw you a bit of unwanted attention. But any other day of the week was fine, even if the sudden downfall of a cyclone of yellow sparks that brought Link to the dais marked with the Triforce emblem did give Rauru a bit of a start.  
  
"Of course, it was a disaster. The instant I appeared inside of the marketplace, I was swamped by people," Link vehemently waving his arms to indicated the struggle and confusion of the gaggle of gawkers that came to awe themselves with him. "Poor Posie got lost underfoot. She had no idea what was going on. Got lost out there. It's such a big place, especially when you're two years old and triumphed by a pigeon. Well, OK, so maybe she was a little bigger than a pigeon, maybe the same size, I can't remember exactly…"  
  
"So she's always been this small? In comparison to others her age, I mean?"  
  
"Yeah. Weirdest of all her quirks. Born not much bigger than my hand. Never actually thought she'd stay that way, though… but where was I? Ah, yes… well, you see, what happened after that, I'm not totally sure, because she couldn't talk very well back then, but that's a given… it seems she managed to stumble off into a back alleyway and come across another child who was lost."  
  
"Ah. Birds of a feather flocking together. On accident, I suppose. But what I'm guessing is, they both managed to communicate to each other, in their two-year-old-ish way of doing things, that they had both gotten separated from their parents and wanted to find their way back. So they banded and started looking together."  
  
"Precisely." Link nodded. "Now me, I was in hysterics. The second I noticed she wasn't clinging by my leg, I positively shrieked with fright. Now, imagine what those people thought, seeing the great Link just freak out like that. I'm supposed to be unflinchable. But I was right then and there. Only they didn't know that, because none of them had bothered to look down and notice I had brought a tag-along. So they backed up good, and I took the time to make a break for it. And, not looking where I was going, careened straight into roughly 300 pounds of muscle, armor, and man, waving his spear like the air was full of nasty, stinging little poisonous insects and bawling like a baby."  
  
"I heard that!" A low toned, almost guttural voice echoed its complaint from almost out of nowhere, and, interrupted from their conversation, Link and Miss Claire whirlwinded around to face the bass man delicately balancing blocks atop a tower. "For your information, I was not 'bawling like a baby,' I was tearing like a man. And I kept my spear firmly by my side as all guards a trained to do unless in an emergency that threatens the whole of the town, thank you very much!"  
  
Miss Claire slid her arms into a knot across her chest and twitched the edges of her lips. "I take it this has something to do with how Elaine and Posie met, am I correct?"  
  
Randy shrugged. "You basically summed it up right there. They find each other, we find each other, we try to find them, they try to find us, we end up colliding with them as well as several other townies in this big spill from an ice cream vendor's cart, Link gets all protective-father- like with Posie, everyone goes 'Awwwww…' and then wants to know, then Link explains his famous-ness. End of story."  
  
"Well, that wasn't all the story, though. You completely forgot the fact that nearly every place you went, we had already been, but you had been just minutes too late." It was nonother than Posie who made this whipish, sardonic comment that frankly made Miss Claire jump nearly a foot into the air at hearing the child use this tone. Not because it was overly rude, but because it was so unlike the Posie she was familiar with. But Link had warned that, under the surface, she was a completely different person. Perhaps having her father there, for his warmhearted support and protection was enough to corrode the barrier she established about herself to cut off ties with his world. Maybe now that the extent of her now so- small world knew, she had nothing to be afraid of. Indeed, in this company, it was a indisputable feather in her cap. Assuming that this company had been paying attention. It wasn't evident any of them were. Well, so long as no one else was queuing for her immediate attention, Miss Claire had a conversation on her plate that might as well be finished.  
  
"Well, such a number of things I've learned about you today, Link… I didn't even know you were even married in the first place."  
  
"Well, after Ganon got his face beaten into the ground fairly well, it wasn't like he was going to be a major problem for a while, which made getting married a fairly safe bet. Oh, sure, I still save all your average Joes and Jans, and I make sure your villages don't get eaten, but honestly, Royal Protector is a cushy job nowadays. Especially accompanying the royal personas to fancy banquets in other kingdoms and countries in Ebridane. Ooh, especially that one the Toadstool family of the one kingdom had. But seriously, can you really expect me to stay chaste from love all my life? Everybody needs somebody. Even me."  
  
"Well, yeah, I mean, I suppose there's truth in that. But, I mean, I thought you liked that Princess or something. But that obviously isn't true now, because you're married and not the new King of Hyrule. So who exactly is your wife?"  
  
"Chlorine girl."  
  
"Nobody asked for your opinion, Mr. Randal Jacob Parkerstine." Miss Claire couldn't help but notice that the was Link snarled, you would've thought he'd been insulted instead of his wife. Besides, she wasn't around to hear it. Why would somebody call anyone "chlorine girl" girl, though? Did they enjoy going swimming? But how was that an insult? Unless, of course, they had overly green hair.  
  
"Hey, it was only a joke. You don't have to hang on that woman's shoulder, protecting her from every little bit of harm and every less than well-bred ne'er-do-well out there. Honestly. Just because she's a little less than in touch with the outside world…"  
  
"Well, in case you haven't forgotten, my so-called best friend, I have a sword and I know how to use…"  
  
"Hey, hey, take it easy, you two!" Miss Claire fluttered her hands in an up-and-down motion, making a "tone down" indication to the fighting men. "We don't need a real fight. There's nothing wrong with being a little protective of someone you love so long as you don't get obsessive about it. Heck, my boyfriend acts the same way. But please, don't banter over it. Like I said, about you guys being grown men… though I'm not so sure about that now; you seem to act like big kids."  
  
Link gave a deep, belly laugh and knelt to the floor, scribbling a pattern of reverse carpet hairs into the ground on his knees and elbows over to where Posie and Elaine were precariously tipping blocks into the edge of the amazing wood-brick spire, which was waxing to amazing proportions and even elaborations. A single block no longer provided a decent base of support, so now it had the foot of a castle, and the tower itself had expanded to being several blocks thick. And impressive piece of construction work, architecture, and sculpture all in one—at least, to a five-year-old.  
  
"Humans either state the blatantly obvious or never realize it till the last minute, and Miss Claire I must find you guilty as charged of the latter." He found a stray little purple cube, slightly smaller than the rest of the clique and etched with images of large and small P's, and gave it an encouraging scoot to rejoin the crowd that was nestling around Posie's knees. It gave a click of delight as it settled peacefully in a niche formed between a foresty, youthful green S and a silver-flushed L that looked both as if they could use something to hug. Their paints instantly seemed to brighten as their tiny and not-quite-matched comrade slid into it place. It seemed consumed by the tumble of the squares around it, but determined not to be lost and thrown into the dustbin of tower material. It in fact seemed to be shifting upward, causing that little couple who had so merrily taken that small misfit piece into their empty cranny to glow with the strange paraphrase of delight only shown in the class of inanimate objects known as toys. And yet, were these toys, or was this a living metaphor of society? There the two of them rested, and here they watched, or yearn to someday watch, as the hand of destiny reached from above to pluck their little girl up from the rabble of society and place her atop the tall tower of the world's champion…  
  
"The two of us ARE just big kids… there's no such thing as a man, you know, just a little boy in a man's body. Of course, we're a bit more responsible and a tad more sensible than little boys, but, that's a moot point." He selected that little misshapen violet block and deposited it tenaciously on the top of the teetering, gnarled tower just as the entire stack came plummeting to the floor. Posie shielded her face with her arms and was biffed and battered by the avalanche of little wood cubes that came diving from what would be the high heavens to her. Shaking away those that huddled in the cranny between her neck and her shoulder and a few that had caught in her sunbeam-flushed, spider floss hair, she turned her head to Link and brushed away motes of imaginary dust from her crinkled tunic front as a signal that, while a tad imping, the rain from above had not done her any general damage.  
  
"Ah. That's my Posie. Nothing fazes ya, does it, kid?"  
  
Miss Claire scuffed her throat in a bit of obvious disagreement, but Posie just smiled and nodded like a marionette, announcing proudly, "No siree! Nothing gets to Posie Cassandra Blade! To or through; I'm as tough as they come!" She paraded like the head lioness of a pride about her fallen faux fortress, waving an imaginary baton and stamping the imprint of her boot into the floor's weave. She even began to hum the Hyrulean national anthem as she marched, though it was a rather buzzy and almost excruciatingly treble rendition. She only seemed to know that one single, famous refrain, droning over and over again, "Do doo, doo dah dee dee dah! Dah dee da dum, dee dah dum, dee dah dum, dee dah… dee dee daaaaa…"  
  
Link's face was pinched, but in laughter, as he stretched out one crisscrossed arm and clamped it gently but in encumbrance upon Posie's shoulder, so small and steep that there was hardly anything to grab hold of. "That's quite enough, love, though I found your version of our nation's anthem in B flat simply stunning." Naturally, he spoke taintedly, squeezing every last bit of sarcasm he had congealing in his personal store out for the purpose of upholding his reputation as the single most annoying and yet friendly person on the entire continent.  
  
"So naturally," Posie laughed back, inflection so oddly mature it was unnerving, "I shouldn't quit my day job."  
  
"I didn't know folks your age could get day jobs," Link tittered as he skittered Posie over to his side with a few taps on her back and a tug or two on her folding tunic collar.  
  
"Hey, I also do parties."  
  
It was all Miss Claire could help to sigh softly and prop herself up against the wall, two dream-ridden orbs nodding back into their sockets with a contemplating sanguinity. Posie really was a different child when she had that swashbuckling, wisecracking, youth in his own sense lurking close at hand. Miss Claire had no trouble identifying where the unconditional love lied between those two—walking the thin, yet endlessly wide, heartstring of family that gave them a common bond. Nothing but an honest, even if it was light, affection could draw out that rumpled, high- tipped beam of delight that spread over Link's face as Posie dove into his embrace and snuggled up against his front. But this certainly wasn't a mild warmth, it was a brilliant pyre, chuckling as it noshed at the common blood that fed it, opening its saffron maw across its crimson face to spew the embers that were every laugh and smile they shared, every good time that burrowed and dwelled within their hearts. In layman's terms: It was evident that Link truly loved his daughter.  
  
"So, kid, whaddiya say… show me the crowd. Introduce me to the gang. You know… I mean, you must have some friends in class, right?"  
  
Posie withdrew from Link's front and made a face. She shot a quick glance over her shoulder, then mumbled, "Welllll… first, I got a bone to pick with one of the kids. Ringleader of the 'In' crowd. He's in need of a serious cutting-down-to-size."  
  
Link laughed. "Oh, one of those. Well, world could always use less of those sorts of attitudes. Go ahead, do whatever it is you need." She slid off his lap and began to weave her way through the crowd, looking for a particular red-head boy in overalls whom had put her down one too many times. Now, it was her turn to laugh! He must be feeling pretty sheepish right now, she was thinking to herself. Surely, he wouldn't dare pick on her now! All she would have to do—the instant he began to retaliate, just give him the old evil eye and say, 'I'll tell my daddy on you!" Now, if that didn't make him creep like the slug he was back under the pile of dead leaves from whence he came, she didn't know what will! He was lurking near a small stack of books when she found him, sulking with his hands in his pockets and a scowl hastily scrabbled across his face.  
  
"So, Tony Barakos, who's doing the laughing now, huh?" She slunk up behind him with a sort of exaggerated, scuffling stride, dramatically shooting one foot in front of the other, than leaning forward almost to the point of falling over when suddenly, almost as if it was beyond her control, out would come her other foot, catching her in the nick of time. Her eyes were narrowed, her mouth was crimped in a snicker, and her entire expression radiated a smug demeanor not totally unlike the one Tony himself often bore. She craned her neck to look up in his face, though finding her way beneath it had involved weaving beneath the slouch of his back and the drag of his limp elbows.  
  
"Yeah, well…" He sounded deflated and weary. "Maybe I misjudged your dad, but a wimp is still a wimp is still a wimp. You're a midget, you'll always be a midget, and I really couldn't care less. Blast you, Posie, what'd I do to be cursed with your presence?"  
  
"Ooh, you actually used my first name for once. I'm SO totally frightened."  
  
"Eh, might as well. It's just as fruity if-not-fruitier-than anything else I could think of to call you. Where'd your parents get nutzo enough to name you a thing like that, huh? Maybe if Link weren't your dad, but honestly, is he really as crazy as he would seem by you?"  
  
"FYI, I happen to very much like name and it was in fact Daddy who gave it to me. What's it to you?"  
  
"Daddy? DADDY?! DADDY?!?! Someone please pass the Q-tip, I must be hearing things." Tony motioned upward to his ears and made a twisting motion with his arms. "Does that man honestly tolerate such a degrading nickname? Honestly, I'd thick he would positively explode at being called such a degrading and childish name."  
  
"He doesn't care. He says that just as long as I'm his baby girl, I can call him whatever I like. Why? Is your father such a stiff and uncaring…"  
  
"Baby girl? Good Goddesses, does your entire family have a sappiness gene? Whatever happened to the undefeatable king of swords? The mega-macho hero of time? He can't just melt like that every time he gets around you, can he?"  
  
"I've obviously never seen him when he's not around me, so I wouldn't know, would I?"  
  
"Oh… go. Just go. Your mushiness is starting to warp my innards."  
  
Feeling victorious over the brat for the first time since they'd met, Posie stalked away.  
  
Tony sighed, out-sardonicked, out-witted, and generally bearing the burden of a tired mind. He pursed his lips and then bit his lower one with a bucktooth, licking at white, chapped flakes of skin and flesh and raking the crusty surface into even deeper submission. A white, depressed flicker trembled in the corners of ebony eyes that, had they not been so full of malice and ill will, would be utterly charming. A tender, smooth hand laid itself upon his shoulder, and he craned his neck to look up to the young woman with a cascade of midnight undulating from her scalp and dark, outsized pools glittering just beneath her forehead. Her skin was pale, her form slender, her lips thin but full at the same time. Her fingers were graceful, but stub-nailed, what could be considered the only fracture amidst a showering of beauty.  
  
"Honey… you know, you aren't going to make a great deal of friends if you don't learn to treat your peers with respect. Especially if you point out glaring differences and make a mockery of them."  
  
"Ehh, what good is she to me anyway? Not like she matters, or will ever matter, for that point, in the long run to me, or anybody."  
  
"Now, darling, you don't know that. You don't know that at all! Besides, she matters very much to her family, and as long as she can make them happy, she might have well made the world happy. Even if not everyone likes you, I still love you. Though that doesn't mean you should show such disregard to others!" His mother scolded him firmly, curting up her face until there were only slivers left of the gaping abysses of her eyes, and she had almost no visible lip left at all. "What do you have in for that poor girl, anyway? It's not her fault she's so small. It's not anyone's fault at all."  
  
"So? You told me that you didn't like Link. Now that everyone knows that he's her dad, why can't it be natural that I don't like her?"  
  
"Now, sweetie…" Tony's mother rose to her feet, supported by even, dainty legs. "There's a great difference. Link did something that… well… that hurt me very badly, something I haven't been able to get over for a long time. But even I don't hold a grudge, because even though he… broke a very serious promise to me, I really don't have any reason to be upset over it anymore, because I have you and you're what matters." She knelt to the floor and scooped the slightly indignant little boy up into her arms, rocking him softly back and forth upon her knees an almost lulling him into a state of sleep. Eventually, though, he realized he was about to drift off and instantly began to push himself free, shaking his head so much that one could almost see his freckles flying off of his face and splating up against the walls. "Mooom! For crying out loud, I'm five years old for the Goddesses' sake! I'm surrounded by my classmates! Don't embarrass me," and he promptly splayed her arms aside and leapt to the floor.  
  
Even though her shape was a bewildering one, if Link had seen the face she had made at the precise moment he would have seen right through her in nanoseconds flat. Brushing a loose strand of hair from her face, she grunted to a stand and turned her attention to the throng that now buzzed anxiously about the frazzled teacher, who was busy dashing out instructions and trying to pull together all the stragglers so that the games could begin.  
  
Kids, she thought and pushed her way to the center of the mob, can't understand a word of their logic, and scarily enough they get most of it from their parents.  
  
***************************  
  
In the end, it didn't turn out as badly as Miss Claire had originally thought it would. Though the day had been cut a tad short by the events of the morning, they managed to botch and bumble their way through every event, though some had proved a bit more difficult to deal with than others. Thankfully, the wind's breath had dusted the sky free of clouds, for a few of the planned events dealt with water and with it the chance of spills, which she did not want tainting her walls or carpet. Especially the problematic water balloon toss, which in the end counted for nothing besides good, clean fun.  
  
First there was the fact that Posie was much too small to catch a full water balloon at high velocity, and it would be an unfair advantage to give her a half-filled balloon, for Link was very much normal sized and would have an easy time catching and keeping hold of a balloon that still retained much of its original stretch. How much of an advantage it would really be, though, Miss Claire was unsure, as it proved, while Link tried to assist in filling the many balloons, that the grain of chain mail that was upon Link's gauntlets was fatal to the surface of fragile polymer. So they decided to sit out, which would mean they would have to obtain double the points the next game they won. Then Krissi went and complained to her mother that she was wearing a brand new dress that she didn't want to get wet, so then they retreated to the sidelines and had a similar rule applied. Tony's mother, who had given her name as Hirodea("Though oddly unsure about it, she was," quoted one of the fathers) went positively ballistic at the mere thought of getting soaked, and several more simply quit. It turned out to be, for the first time in the kindergarten's four- year history, an optional event, as giving the double-score rule to so many was simply a pain in the neck and could more easily be managed in a fell swoop.  
  
At the end of that long and tiresome round of games, there was a three-way tie: Tony and his mother, "Hirodea," Elaine and her father, and, as most everyone had expected, Link and Posie had all cleared the rounds with the same figure, and now Miss Claire fished through a hat full of slips of paper to determine the tiebreaking event. "Lies and ties, a tragic tale, mystery tool caught in pool of the scale!" was an ancient Hylean saying, rather cryptic but deciphered by most as "It's been right under your nose all this time, but unfortunately that's in the dragon's keep." That was how she felt about the meaning of this trolling day—it meant something, deep down in there, but the trek to find it was long and dangerous. Her fingers finally found an aura around one of the pieces that suited them, and they stole it from the cap so that the anxiety under pressure that was definitely subliminal amongst the crowd could be released. She thankfully kept a steady store of tiebreaking incidents in her office for all occasions, though there were a few she would toss into the salad especially for Parent's Day.  
  
She read the Cucco-scratch handwriting to herself and groaned: One of the Parent's Day specialties, this particular card called for the family teams in question to each demonstrate some tradition from their kindred, and it would be judge on how accurately the child could copy what their parent did. There had been troubles with this one, in the past: last year's experience came vividly to mind, with—she did not even want to think about it. But, she intended to play fair and by the rules she herself had spent several hours slaving over, and she would not, no matter how much she was tempted to, place the card back, shake the hat and draw again.  
  
The faces that were returned to her by the six participants did not boost her confidence any. Tony and Hirodea began to feverishly chitter about anything in their family that could vaguely be considered a "tradition" that could be performed in the class; Elaine and Randy on the opposite hand had stockpiles of trivial little traditions and began to dissect which ones would be best, and Link and Posie just stared at each other, both with obviously one thing on mind that twisted their looks to think about.  
  
Each of the three groups retreated to a corner in order to discuss.  
  
"Alright. It's obvious. You're thinking what I'm thinking, I'm thinking what you're thinking, neither of us is happy with it but it's all the ammo we got. Capiche?"  
  
Posie gave a sour nod. "Right. Umm, there's no chance of, uh, anyone getting hurt in this, is there?"  
  
"Nah. I wouldn't dare give the thing full power in a crowded area. Besides, there's a big difference between a sword and a stick. As long as folks stay back and I pick a fairly brittle branch, no one's gonna get burned. Besides, it isn't even a really fire, just an energy swipe that looks like one. Y'know?"  
  
"I know," and Posie shuffled her feet in waiting. The moment of truth approached—though it pressed against the back of her throat more like the black cloud of deception.  
  
Tony and Hirodea renounced the match as soon as it began, stating that they were at a loss for finding any sort of tradition. Randy and Elaine took their stage and Randy demonstrated a strange, meticulous dance that seemed a cross between soft-shoe and a whirling dervish, which Elaine mimicked perfectly and with an added grace Randy's dolphin feet would not allow. Link, returned from the outside and with a small, sopping branch in his hand, made his way through the center of the crowd.  
  
"Lady, gents, children," his voice cracking embarrassingly, "What I am about to demonstrate you have no doubt seen before or at least heard described, it is a very old trick and a very famous one, too. I come from a family of warriors, the first of my kinsmen eons ago being blessed by the Goddesses with this very stunt. An ancient sword technique, passed down through the generations by the Blades and really not needing any sort of weapon to accomplish. Much to our convenience. Please stand back, there is a minimal risk involved but I will take precautions. Now, I present you with my trick…"  
  
Link gave a small cough and assumed a stance, spreading his legs for balance and holding the branch out to his side. At first, nothing happened, but then they noticed small sparks of a bluish energy flowing down Link's arm and gathering around the branch. A corona of silvery cerulean light encircled the twig, turning it into a vein of metal trickling through a mountainside. The air turned thick and stuffy, a sudden haze of humidity present. The rest of the room seemed very dark compared with the branch, and a low, throbbing hum chirped on in the new-fallen silence.  
  
Then, as quickly as it had started, it was over, and Link was suddenly a fast-moving tornado of green, tan and shimmering light. They tasted lightning in their mouths and felt the sudden burst of heart of the energy's release, and then the twig was just a twig and Link was just Link, standing there with only a few wind-blown dregs of his hair clinging to his face to indicated that he had ever moved.  
  
There was a modest round of applause.  
  
Link bowed and nodded and continued his miniature speech from earlier. "Yes. I thank you all! Now, as one might expect, I am not about to let the buck stop here, if you prefer clichés. Even though she may be a girl and rather small at that, do not underestimate Posie. Her strength is great, considering. And I'm sure, if she tries, that she can also pull off that stunt! She has not been training and trying for more than a year for nothing! Correct, Posie?"  
  
Posie, who had been standing against the wall through the whole ordeal, suddenly lost her enraptured stare and became very interested in the toes of her boots. "C-c-correct," she stammered. She had behind her a similar stick, but it now hung idle down her torso. With a sigh and a sniffle, she pattered softly to center stage, then proceeded to hold off the switch to her right.  
  
Nothing happened. No brilliant wash of power, no congealing atmosphere, nothing at all. But still she concentrated. And oh, did she concentrate! Her eyes were pinched tight and her forehead was bunched, and her normal smirk was a determined leer. So tense she was, tremors ranging from mild to massive inhabiting every inch of her body. She would not force herself to spin! She would let it happen, as Link had told her. But most of all, she would not give her classmates reason to jibe! She would fiercely discipline herself until she could do it properly!  
  
It was in vain.  
  
The small tree limb was out of her hands in an instant, and dazed, she fell to the floor. Tears were racing down her cheeks before Link could come running to her side, and sobs escaped her mouth in torrents. She had cracked before, but this was the first time, in public, she had ever truly broken down, and she wasn't even a smidgen embarrassed when she was being cradled in Link's arms, rocking slowly back and forth as he hummed a soft, choppy, and yet oddly melodious tune.  
  
"Shh. Posie Cassandra; no need to cry. All of us have troubles, and all of us get frustrated. It is good to cry sometimes, for tears are the way in which the heart rids itself of sorrow. But there is no need for this. No idle tears."  
  
"No idle tears," she repeated softly.  
  
"There's a good girl," he said as he raised his finger to brush away the fiery drops as they seared her face. "Sometimes failure is better than success. It tells you exactly what you need to work on. Do you understand, Posie?"  
  
She nodded into his tunic.  
  
"Good. And, anyways, you should be happy for Elaine. After all, I'm fairly sure she and her father won."  
  
"I'm not so sure," sighed Elaine. "After all, even though I performed the dance better than Posie the slash, she tried awfully hard. I think she deserves something for perseverance. Righty-o, Miss C?"  
  
Miss Claire beamed happiness. "I couldn't have said it better myself, Elaine. A special award this year, I think, to Posie Blade for being so persistent and never giving up. What do you say we end the day with out awards?"  
  
Link nodded, but then he just a quickly shook his head. "Thanks but no thanks. This kid's one who seriously needs a breather. She's had a rough day, and I think she and I both could use a rest. You don't mind, do you, kid?"  
  
But Posie had already curled up in Link's arms and had closed her eyes, safely away in a peaceful oblivion of sleep.  
  
"That settles it, then." And the two Blades were out the door and away. 


	4. Research

1 Spinning Slash, Chapter 4: Research  
  
2  
  
3 The sign said, "Do Not Disturb."  
  
4  
  
5 The expression on her face said, Do Not Disturb? Do not disturb, my medallion!  
  
6  
  
7 The deep, full drone wheezed in and out, an incessant roar that sent shivers through the stems of the farthest flowers in the darkest reaches of the Lost Woods. Its trembling tirade howled through the ears of everyone within a fifty foot radius and made them reel back in vexation. A lion would be jealous, an ancient dinosaur would envy, the snorting, growling barks of Link's snores.  
  
8  
  
9 She tossed the waist-length mane of emerald silk over her shoulder and out of her face, the whispers as the glistening lines of viridian gossamer shifted the peals of silver bell. Long lashes blinked slowly over eyes set like a pair of single-rupee gems, though infinitely more priceless. Cheeks glowing and rosy perfectly complimented delicate porcelain shapes that twisted gracefully and enchantingly, though it was clear from the torque in the rose-petal lips that this living china doll was imped, as one could be expected to be after having to live through the constant dogging hubbub that filled the air in the Kokiri's realm.  
  
10  
  
11 A deliciously flutelike voice, inlaid with the very pearls of laughter, sighed as the rupee-eyes glanced across the makeshift bulletin Link had placed upon the door. Although the humdrum noise was no new circumstance to her life, and so many had been the times when she had stumbled over that overly ornate, largely loopy handwriting, it was now that it cut into her nerves and caused what was so normally a figure of beauty to be distorted. She ran her soft, slender fingers over the grain of the scrap wood, blots of ink rubbing off and shamefully tainting her fingerprints. That ringing tone spoke again, saucy and scattering those jewels of laughter like marbles on a polished floor.  
  
12  
  
13 "Sorry, buddy, but if I don't disturb someone's going to get arrested for breaking the peace." She placed her hand firmly upon the brass doorknob and shoved the door open.  
  
14  
  
15 The library—if it could really be called that, it was more of a rather large study—was a complete and utter mess. A dejected quill blotted ink over piles and piles of creamy yellow paper, hastily scrawled with notes about theories of inner magic nature and of common tactics of battle. Pieces of parchment fluttered down from the tops of shelves, and priceless scrolls containing the wisdom of bygone mages were strewn about in a caddy- wompus manner. Esoteric volumes lay stacked in haphazard columns, and myriad tomes were erected in no conceivable order at all, pages flying open in the breeze from the newly-opened door. It was as if a particularly knowledge-hungry rabid dog had come tearing through the room, ripping apart the neatly assembled shelves in a quest for one single piece of information—a piece which as of yet still lay fossilized somewhere beneath the heaps of books, and the dog in question had fallen from fatigue whilst leaning over the edge of a rolling stepladder to the highest spaces.  
  
Link was dozing into both the side of his arm and a rather large space in she shelves, whose contents now lay spilled to his side on the floor. One of his limbs was limp by his side, bare fingers still desperately clutching the spine of a bulky manuscript with a crimson velvet cover and embellished gold lettering. His other had been presumably going for the last encyclopedia left on the particular section of the shelf until he had blacked out completely, arm coming against the ladder's edge and Link's face nodding forward into its side. He mumbled something incomprehensible in his sleep, the turned his head and she could see the imprint of his hair on his skin.  
  
The hot, pungent fragrance of the simmering stew, combined with the mouth-watering aroma of Chocolate Death cake, seemed enough to wake the man as it was. Yet there he still lazed, mouth hanging open and hand turning sallow as the pressure applied by his face cut off the better part of his circulation. She scolded him under her breath for being such a bum, then trotted up to his side, shaking her head. Sorry, buddy, she thought, but I gotta do what I gotta do.  
  
"Psst… Link…" She hissed into his ear. "Link, get up. Get up. Up, you good-for-nothing!"  
  
Link snorted and spat out a piece of dust. Still he remained unbudged.  
  
Well, so much for plan A: Complain at him until he wakes. On to plan B, then: Insults.  
  
"Link, you tramp! Beggar! You're nothing more than an overgrown, selfish brat who doesn't know right from idiotic and you're stupid enough to fall asleep standing up!"  
  
"Nggg. Fi mo' minuf, Mom." His head craned about on his neck until it rested back in the crook of his arm, then he went back to snoring.  
  
Odd that he should be talking to his mother in his sleep; she died before he was even old enough to remember her. She groaned and placed a hand on Link's shoulder. There was a blue end to spectrum, too. And she had a plan C in reserve, one that worked ninety-nine point nine percent of the time: Sickeningly sweetness.  
  
"Shh…" She giggled, and whispered flirtatiously in his ear, "Oh, Link, you absolutely gorgeous hunk of Hylian, you… sugar bunny, sweetie pie, darling? Oh, fudge bar, my cupcake, won't you please get up? I need to stare into your sapphire eyes again, or else I fear I shall fall apart…"  
  
Somewhere from the depths of his dream, Link sniggered, and broke into a coy smile. "Are you busy this Friday?" he asked the invisible maiden of his reverie.  
  
That was it. Hands on her hips, she saw only one last way out. Fire blazing behind her eyes, she stared intensely at Link, bizarre crackling noises occupying the air between them and a sudden flash of heat torching the room.  
  
Staring out the window of his home in Hyrule Castle Town, Randy snickered cynically as he saw a sphere of green light erupt from many miles away in the direction of the Kokiri Forest.  
  
Flat on his back, thrown from the ladder by the instant eruption of fire, magic and electricity, Link stared shocked and unblinking at a pale, green ceiling. Rotten-looking red welts had already begun to spring from his darkened skin, and every strand of his blonde floss was repelled from his scalp and upward, into the air. The whites were large around his eyes and their pupils were shrunk into mere specks. Grotesque flecks peeled from scorched areas where the lightning had connected. Black cinders dotted the folds of a once perfect forest tunic. His mouth was still hanging, but now it was cupped into a dazed smile while sweat dripped from a reddened forehead. His entire body shone with burn.  
  
"You know, pushing me off the ladder probably would have been a lot less painful?!?!"  
  
She shook her head a final time. "Yes, and then it would have knocked you out colder than your were. I don't think so. Besides, you never fail to bend at my magical whim." He looked at her darkly and she couldn't resist the urge to laugh and kneel and stroke his hair with a mischievous cackle in her eye. "Oh, but don't you worry, you know I'd never hit you with anything powerful enough to actually do you lasting harm, just cause some temporary discomfort. Honestly, you've known me all the twenty-four years of your life and still you don't know me well enough?"  
  
"Temporary discomfort…!!!" He began to stir with rage, but it was a false rage and he eased himself back into a placid state as he had tried to sit up, but immediately released back down again when he discovered the skin upon his palms to be far too tender to bear weight. Instead, he sighed, looked pleadingly up into her face with eyes that whimpered and howled with pain. She clicked her tongue in annoyance, but the gentle flutter of her heart came to her sleeves as she pressed a cool, smooth hand to his forehead and willed into being a brigade of prancing green sparks that ebbed and flowed their way down Link's persona and took with them all the dark, scalding flesh and returned the glimmering gold to charred strands of hair. The pain melted into a void and Link could sit up again, enough so to look into her face.  
  
"Honestly, Saria, I don't know where I'd be without you… though how far I've gotten with you, on the other hand, is certainly a debatable topic."  
  
Saria's voice, long having left the innocent tinkle of childhood behind for the deeper, more chimelike toll of the womanhood that was only hers by accident, nevertheless had always had the same laugh, a laugh that cut through the atmosphere at that moment and smothered Link in its glorious waves. The small, humid room, steam from down below billowing in, seemed to ripple all around with silver threads and motes of dust, illuminated by the last of the rays that trickled through the window, were touched by a flicker of golden fire whose jaws, in the middle of the great golden flames, was stroked by an earthy green that seemed part of only the Lost Woods and their keeper in particular. Pages ruffled in the absence of a cross-draft and a bound scroll tumbled over the floor before that laugh came to an end.  
  
"But honestly," she cleared her throat and began, "I came up here to talk to you and that's what I plan to do. You've been holed up here in the library since dawn this morning, flipping pages and driving yourself to exhaustion chasing about scrolls. You've obviously been taking notes, but so hastily I bet you'd even have trouble reading them if you tried. What have you been looking for, Link?"  
  
"Information." His reply was short, curt and very open-ended, and that was exactly the way he had planned it. He propelled himself to his feet and set one boot tip on the lowest rung of the ladder when Saria called to him again.  
  
"What, that's it? You're just going to blow me off like that?" He turned his head. "Obviously it must be some very important information about something, because you never ate breakfast, you completely blew off lunch, and you actually fell asleep right before dinner! Link Hiro Blade being so preoccupied he has no time to think about food is like an Eskimo being so wrapped up in building an igloo that they can't notice the polar bear about to tear them to shreds!"  
  
"OK. Fine then. It's important. You got a problem with that?" He hiked up the next few steps.  
  
Saria clutched her forehead. "Darling…" She strode briskly to the ladder, gazing up into Link's face as his eyes scanned the shelves for the volume that he had been locked on to earlier. "Please don't do this to me; you know I love you and wouldn't ever do anything to make you feel bad… come on Link, I know this may sound a bit harsh, but… grow up. If a Kokiri can do it, then so can you."  
  
Link sniffled a little and sneezed as a little cloud of dust entered his nose. He pondered this for a bit, then, reproachfully slid backwards down the ladder and shoved it aside. He stared into Saria's face, trying to pretend… this was an ordinary conversation. There were in the Sacred Forest Meadow, he just returning from a seemingly endless romp across Hyrule, she the Kokirish Saria of yesteryear, with a round, cherubic face, framed by curls and swirls of her trademark viridian hair, and lanky hands far too big for their own good. But the crystalline(and similarly hard) gaze of those rupee eyes knocked him far off balance, for the simple turquoise bobble that had once drawn calm from the deepest pits of his soul was no more. Where in the process they had changed was beyond Link's comprehension, perhaps it was a side effect of the spell that had struck her. But now, rather than instilling serenity, they invoked a fevered sense of passion; a one-two skip of his heart, a heavy breath, and it was like seeing her for the first time again in a mature body, bestowed by the ricochet of the spell, and falling in love with her over again. He was melting through her fingers, and by the triumphant smirk on her lips, she knew that he was. His body was falling away from his mind, leaving it vulnerable and open, and those deep-held furies begged to be released…  
  
"Aye… fine then, you've won. I surrender. It… it's Posie."  
  
Saria bunched her lips, but remained, for the most part, inarticulate. The only sounds she made we an Mmm-hmm in the bottom of her throat with a nod to accompany it.  
  
"Well… you know… what happened Friday. She was… pretty upset about that. I… I already… told you…"  
  
"Yes yes. What about what happened Friday? You told me that she tried to show off that little spin trick of yours, failed, and got pretty upset. I don't know about what happened there…"  
  
"…But by the time she got home, she was terribly sad and cried for at least an hour after she woke up." The two finished, in unison, the sentence, and Link glanced up from the vivid gestures he was making with his hands to catch the tip of a smile from Saria's cheeks. It didn't take six years bound together under one roof for the two to start finishing what the other was saying. They'd know each other for so long that they'd been doing it since childhood. Normally, it made them giggle to know how prophetic they were of each other's words, but the look Link bore remained stone cold and dead serious, making Saria recoil as if she'd been tapped with a whip.  
  
"I've been thinking." He fiddled with a pencil he'd bent down and picked up off the floor, sticking his tongue out in concentration. Saria dearly wanted to retort with "That's a first," but knew it was not the time. Despite the fact that she loved him more as a person than as a friend now, old habits died hard and occasionally, things would revert back to the ways they were in the good old days. "Seeing my precious little girl so upset really struck home, and I've decide I've got to do something about it. She's wanted to be just like me ever since she found out who I really was, and I want to give her that chance. I've tried to teach her my tricks of the trade, but it's hard for both of us. It's been a year now since she first tried to do the spinning slash…"  
  
As if on cue, a miniscule, male voice keened shrilly, accompanied by a background drone and followed by "Hey! What have your parents told you about practicing in the house?!?!"  
  
"Well, you were behind me, Glowball! How am I supposed to try not hit you if I can't see you?"  
  
Saria groaned inwardly. It was true, several times had the firmly told Posie that she was never to attempt tricks inside, and her testimony against Atahl really had nothing to do with that. But it could wait… she was firmly interested in what Link had to say. She made beckoning motions with her hands. "Go on…"  
  
"So I… I've been looking… for… any sort of answer, really… in these…" He turned around, making a sweeping stroke. "I know there must be a clue, a key, somewhere…"  
  
Saria wore a blank mask. Her mouth hung slack-jawed, her eyes trailed unfocused. There was nothing there for an instant, just a black void that drained her soul, and then… she snapped back into reality, and, loosing a distressed breath, fell into a fit of horribly tired chuckling.  
  
"Link… you nitwit, you… the slash is your family's best kept secret and one of the greatest enigmas of our time—how in Hyrule do you honestly expect to find…"  
  
He stifled. "A hunch."  
  
A "hunch." A "hunch!" Hadn't that man learned yet that his hunches seldom carried the mother lode? That unless he made an educated guess based on fact they never would? Just because her collection of books had always been large and arcane, that didn't mean she owned the knowledge of the world! Just because the Blades had been one of the most prominent warrior families in all of Hyrule didn't mean that their deepest, darkest secrets were going to be stashed away in her den. Why, one was just about as likely to find the ancient ways of the Blade clan in those books as they were of the family who lived next door to the pizza parlor in Hyrule Castle Town! In the olden days, people seldom knew how to read or write, even the knights of high blood, so it was unlikely any prehistoric Blade had written the secrets of their technique in a diary or journal. There was the journal of Link's father buried somewhere in that stash, it was true, but apparently dear old Jeremiah Emilio Blade was a clumsy man who had unwittingly spilled his morning coffee over his life's ponderings one day twenty-four years ago, leaving only one passage readable that depicted only a mundane argument he'd been recently having with himself about whether or not to leave his secret cottage to enlist in the war. Nowhere in all of that clutter—in all of the clutter of all of Hyrule!—was there going to be a book talking about the slash. Ganon's ashes in their grave, was there no sense in all of his mind?  
  
It was easy to refrain from showing amusement—but it was difficult not to give in to frustration. Already her cheeks were reddening.  
  
"Erii, erii," she mumbled darkly to herself, which was the equivalent in the ancient, spellbinding language of the first Kokiri to "child, child." Because Kokiri were always children, they had no particular word for the youthful sort, but an erii was a particularly young(or foolish) Kokiri who had little sense of how the world worked. Although Link had never bothered to learn the lie of the Kokirish tongue of old, he knew a few distinct phrases, erii being one of them. He often heard Saria sigh this when he was nigh to her and doing something particularly ridiculous, at which point her knew to stop lest he want to face the brilliant heat and terrible pulse of her thunder-spell again. More willing was he to hear her utter the word eriiko, which referred to an also young, but perfectly innocent, Kokiri who was sweet and likeable, much like a man or woman from the outside might call their significant other "baby" or "pet."(The Kokiri had no real word for a baby, as they hardly went through a "baby" stage themselves as they are born knowing how to walk and talk, and pets besides guardian fairies were unheard of.)  
  
"Err… I take it you… you don't think my hunch is very… accurate?"  
  
"Accurate? Link, PROMISE me that if Hyrule ever manages to get her hands on some of that fancy missile technology they've got over in places like North America and Asia—you know, the continents most people can actually see, not like good old shrouded Ebridane here—you'll never be on the launch team. Never."  
  
"My aim is that bad?"  
  
"You don't know the half of it, erii."  
  
Link snorted, then crossed his arms, leaned his back into the wall and said casually, bracing his foot behind him, "Well, will you look at that? I can't even get a good word outta my best friend—my best friend and wife! Now if you'll ex-CUUUUSE me, Saria, I'll just head back to my research, thankyouverymuch."  
  
"Fine then, starve. I'm heading back down to set the table for dinner. I ONLY came up here to tell you that dinner was just about ready."  
  
"You said you came down here to talk to me," Link stated firmly.  
  
"Well, yes I did, and I was going to inform you about eating anyway. So if you don't mind, I'll be away." She turned to leave. "Oh yeah, and one more thing, you ninny." Her head was perched backwards over her shoulders.  
  
"What?" he bit, surly.  
  
"Love ya." She flirtatiously flittered her eyelashes a blew a kiss.  
  
The door creaked shut, but not before Link could practically feel the waves in the air from Saria's breath caress his face. A smile—a microscopic smile, but a smile nonetheless—itched his face, and he couldn't help but turn a bit dreamy. OK, so having her by his side day and night got a bit more claustrophobic than the old days—it didn't matter. The old days were just that, the old days and they were gone. Fingering lightly the spot where he swore Saria's kiss had hit, he marched across the room, loping over streamers of scraps while gazing dazedly forward. He'd always known the spell had been his fault. Maybe he did change Saria from a Kokiri to a true Hylian. He was glad about it every step of the way. Ajabando maho h erii, thyart ajabando maho gaqu erii. "He is a fool, but he is my fool—" and it was a bondage he had no resentments to being part of.  
  
And maybe… he would stop thinking about what had happened last Friday. Maybe. Just maybe.  
  
Maybe, at least, till he went to the Royal Libraries tomorrow. Now there were the answers.  
  
  
  
************************  
  
A clattering sound echoed through the stories of tall marble pillars and glossy marbled floors and polished marble ceiling that made the eyelids twitch about equally marbled gray eyes. A small poof of dust skirted over the peak of wiry gray hair sculpted into a rude bun atop the head of a vulture-necked old hunchbacked woman with cracking glasses poised on a crooked nose. Sinewy, veined hands pressed down with sweaty palms on the bronzing letters of a hand-copied book from aeons before. The weathered, brown skin was splattered with ink blots and printing-press imprints and the like, while aforementioned eyes plunged about glistening reflections in cold stone, and a voice as jagged and antique as the mountains themselves croaked out a few words before falling into a hacking fit: "Are you positive you're alright there, sonny?"  
  
A dust-laden cough choked back. "Fine, fine! Just—hrough—decide to peruse the lower shelves, that's all!"  
  
A concoction of leathery skin, the thick, dark lines of blood vessels, and the rickety shapes of old, arthritic bones molded itself about the head of a finely carved cane of support, which had the foot of a lion twisted about with strands of ivy. "Sounds more to me like you fell from the ladder! Are you sure you'll be fine, boy?"  
  
"Ruto, I'm fine! And stop calling me 'boy!' I'm a grown man, for the Goddesses' sake! And I'm…"  
  
"And you're married and you have a little girl named Posie, I know. Ha! I'll stop calling you boy, alright. The day you show me your great-great grandchildren!" The archaic old hag chuckled grimly and stiffly rose to her feet, as one might who had just taken a good long fall and landed smack dab on their rear end. However, it was quite clear she hadn't(which was a good thing, because if she had, she might very well have shattered into a million pieces), she simply had a very old skeleton, very old indeed, and wasn't quite as spry as she used to be. But for someone who had lost count of their years at least 30 of them ago, she had a remarkable amount of get-up and go—well, at least the go part. The getting up was a struggle. Her name was Ruto, yes, like the sage, and had been born in a time when the Sages were merely a legend that was as likely as the next to come true, but still made for a good and exciting story whose heroes nearly every child was named after in some way, hoping that they might be the reincarnation of one of those glorious mages. This particular Ruto was very glad it was the animated Zora princess and not herself who was destined to fulfil the role of the protector of all of Hyrule's waters, though she did cackle in her geezerly way whenever Link happened to look her way, as she thought blithely of the amorous young mermaid giggling frantically after the rather handsome young hero. But he was betrothed to another, she reminded herself, and ironically another Sage—Saria, green mistress of growing things. A sensible girl, she nodded. And thankfully so! Much better for him than that aloof, bubble-headed bleach-blonde Zoey. No, wait, Zoey wasn't right… Zia? Ack, she was terrible with names… whatever the name was of Mercutioe's spoiled daughter.  
  
"I'd like to, but one or both of us is going to be dead by that time!" Link struggled ineptly to free his leg from a pile of ancient scribblings with rusty metal spines. Gray specks flecked his normally shimmering golden locks, giving them a dull, disconcerted look that would have fit him more back in his knight-errant days. Ah, but she had forgotten—it wouldn't have done much to him then, as he had temporarily dyed his hair brown to fit in more with his rugged lifestyle. How long that had lasted! After finding out that someone (who had most likely been Zima… no, that was STILL off…) had crept into his bedroom at night, shaved his head, and left the hastily scribbled note card of "You looked better as a blonde, signed, An Anonymous Fangirl," he quickly set about to re-grow his hair in its natural color—but not before tossing his entire supply of hair dye out the window, after which it promptly landed atop the wandering head of the  
  
King, who had been ambling through his gardens. This might not have been so bad for the King, were it not for the fact he had no natural hair left to dye. All photographs of the King, casual or otherwise, showed his crown firmly cemented to his cranium for weeks afterwards.  
  
"If you continue this way, boy, then it may very well be you who goes first!"  
  
"Har har and ho ho, Ruto, you're such a laugh! This hills must've learnt all their tricks from you!" He clamped down on a heavy manuscript from amidst the lump of them at his feet and brushed a film of powder from its front, freeing the embellished gold leaf lettering from its prison of neglect. Dragon Taming for Dummies. Got his vote for scariest horror novel of the year. He crammed it back into the nearest level bookshelf with a space in it(which there was none) and proceeded to nit- pick fastidiously through the mound of heavy stacks of glue, paper and thread, shaking away long-abandoned bookworm cocoons and sighing at one after another of useless volumes. One by one he examined covers like a scholar, and one by one he stuffed them back into their shelf in a very un- scholarly manner.  
  
"Well, my humor is world famous, you know! Even my early attempts were funny! I'm sure you're heard the one about the Cucco who tried to cross the road…"  
  
Link ignored the old woman's ridicule and instead tried to focus on something outside the library he was determined to tunnel through with a fine-toothed comb until he'd either seen it all or found an answer. A bird chittering outside the gold-embellished window… the gentle whistling of the wind over the ancient branches it had warped and polished… silken footfalls on the tile outside…  
  
A creek and the great golden doors parted.  
  
Ruto began to growl to herself. There, in the threshold, stood Xena(That WAS correct, right?), blue eyes ablaze with a mystic curiosity, balmy ripples of murky blonde(Ruto would have called it dishwater, but the girl's bloody royal status put all thoughts of that away in her head) bouncing with newly primped curls down her back. Long, elbow gloves of finely knitted chiffon lavender delicately adorned shapely hands, while a long, crimped muslin skirt whorled over her feet. A thicker, more velvety and almost apron-like cloth was draped in front of the gown, embroidered with national images—a stylized eagle, a swirl here and there, and a blue- and-gold Triforce the major features. Paradoxical shoulder plates domed across hers, though they were golden and thin and ceremonial, not the heavy, steel and titanium ones the knights wore. In the tiny lobes of her triangular ears hung Triforce earrings, all features blending together to become the heir apparent to Hyrule, the future Queen of a land with strong moral values rooted in religion, but with the backup of great knowledge of magic and the ways of the world. It was too much to hope that she would find a way to link their land with the world(though that was secretly what everyone hoped of future monarch), though she had at least succeed in working with Link, her trusted bodyguard, assistant, friend and, at one time before he had found Saria, lover, to at least bring a few of their problems to light across the globe. Link, who had done the majority of the bargaining, hadn't had the heart to tell her that it was only in a "video game," an electronically advanced form of entertainment that, thought would have delighted many Hylians, had difficulty working in Ebridane like many foreign technologies because of the lost continent's magic overload.  
  
"Hullo, Zelda," said Link dishearteningly.  
  
Zelda…! So THAT was her name! Ruto, feeling rather stupid, went and tried to hit her head against the wall, but hit so hard that she fell unconscious on the floor.  
  
"Link…?" Zelda braced her palms against the pressuring sides of the massive doors and swiveled her head from side to side. She spotted him gazing into the depths of a tome entitled Greatest Mysteries of Ebridane, and smiled. He continued to flip pages, and her smile fell.  
  
"Are you alright?" She stepped into the library's light and the door fell shut with a great rushing of air behind her, a vacuum that threatened to drag her back into the great amber crystal light of the chandelier-illuminated hallway.  
  
"Never been better, Zelda," he lied.  
  
"Alright. What's up?" Either she hadn't heard him, or didn't believe him, the latter being the more likely of the two. "Now look, I know you hate council meetings as much as the next red-blooded, never-sit-still insatiable-hunger-for-action type of warrior, but actually calling one off, to look at books nonetheless, old books, is so unlike you! You got a bug of some sort? Something affecting your brain?"  
  
"Fine. I've got strep throat and uh… have to get my tonsils removed. Just… finding out more about the operation?" He grinned, and then coughed for emphasis. "See? My throat feels so… uck, swollen…"  
  
Zelda gave a discontented look, then eyed Link suspiciously and bent over to pick up a small sample of the documents that he had cached at his feet. "Great Knights of Hyrule? Beginning Fencing? All You Ever Wanted To Know About Magic But Were Afraid To Ask?" she said, reciting the titles of the three books she held out loud. "No can do, bud. Now tell me. Honestly. What in the name of heaven and Hyrule are you looking for?"  
  
Great, a repeat of the "Saria" conversation. "Well… maybe I'm not sick… but I might as well be. I've got this problem, see, with…"  
  
"Ah, a problem," Zelda interrupted. "Now we're getting somewhere. I'm listening, big guy…"  
  
Link immediately saw this as an opportunity to stray from the beaten path and to try and take the princess's attention away from what she had come in here to do. "Stop it!"  
  
"Stop what?" Zelda seemed genuinely confused. Her arms were crossed in front of her pale pink dress.  
  
"Stop flirting with me!"  
  
Zelda dropped her arms in shock. "Flirting?!?! I wasn't flirting with you! Even I know better than to flirt with a guy who's already got a wife, not to mention one whom he loves very much!"  
  
"You to were flirting! You called me big guy! You haven't called me that since before Saria and I were married!"  
  
"Oh, never mind!" She brushed in front of her face as if an annoying little shiny black buzzing insect were darting back and forth before her nose. "You were just trying to detour from the subject anyway. What's the matter, Link? Come on. If I can't get it from you, then I'm going to ask Saria or Randy. And who would you rather I heard it from, them or you?"  
  
Link winced, and little subliminal prickles bunched up in the shoulders of his tunic. She did have a point. Even though he hadn't told Randy, Saria knew, and letting Saria make mountains out of molehills(and—even worse!—with that terrible cynical fairy Atahl droning by her shoulder) was a fate worse than death, or a burst of green lighting. His breath jumped out of his chest as he tried to take one painful look into Zelda's eyes. "Fine, fine. You know Posie…"  
  
"Oh yes, Posie, your…"  
  
"Daughter, Zelda."  
  
"Right. Daughter. Charming." Ha, if she truly was Link's daughter, chances were she was anything but. Of course, she'd never met the child, but Link had promised to bring her to the castle some day. Though Zelda thought that the half of Posie that was Saria might at least be versed in at least a bit of proper etiquette, whatever of her was Link was doomed to be ill-mannered and probably need as serious of an attitude adjustment as her father. Oh, just what she didn't need, a tiny and high- pitched voice squealing "Well ex-CUUUUSE me, Princess!" at her every misfortune and upset moment. Hopefully Link hadn't rallied on the days when he had been a castle-dweller(and when she had shaved his head because of that awful color he had turned it) to Posie…  
  
"Errm, yeah. Well… you know… I've got high hopes for that kid in my art… swordfighting, you know. Wants to be a warrior, just like her daddy. Would've personally thought she'd choose better than this skimpish trade for herself, but, might as well pass the skills on while I still can. You know my signature trick—charging a sword up with energy and then doing the whirling attack. Some call it the flameblade, some call it the whirling blade, some, the Hyrulean tornado… but me, I prefer the good old spinning slash. An old family trick, which I learned from my father… or, to be more precise, I taught myself and then learned what it really was when I met my father's ghost."  
  
"Lovely, Link, lovely." She had her arms crossed again and was rapping her long, delicate fingernails up and down along her frail biceps. "So what's the problem here?"  
  
"Well, she… she… she can't do it! No matter what I try and no matter how much she tries, still she fails. It just… it just really bugs me, you know?!?!"  
  
"Mmm-hmm. And this is the big problem?"  
  
"Zelda, you just don't understand!" Link made a livid gesture out of balling his hands into a double fist and ramming the side of the bookcase. It was made out of stone(like everything else in the Royal Library except the books themselves), so there was no chance of it collapsing on them, but it gave a violent shudder that sent one small, almost insignificant novel crafted with flaky, illuminated letters on brittle onion paper tumbling the long plunge over the carved precipice. It gave Link a solid thwack on the head that sent him dizzy for a few moments, then it trembled onto his shoulder where he picked it up and stuffed it under his arm. "This problem… it isn't just a problem, it's a handicap! It had preoccupied my mind, sapped my strength, and hung my soul out to dry over an abyss I cannot leap."  
  
Zelda looked up and to the right of Link, punching together her lips and giving a few facetious rounds of applause. "Touching five second speech, Link. But what do you honestly expect to find here in the libraries that you can't find within yourself? Maybe if it weren't for the fact that you and Posie are the only two people in all of Hyrule and the world who can pull off this spinning slash whatchamacalit, I'd be more sympathetic, but really…"  
  
"Maybe someday when you marry the prince of your dreams and have kids of your own, you'll understand how I feel. Unconditional love—and the pain that comes with it—isn't something that you can describe to someone who's never felt it before!"  
  
Zelda sniggered evilly. "Try me," she said.  
  
"Fine. It's… it's like… well, you know how you love all the people in your country, even though you don't know them? You love them because… because you're responsible for them. Or maybe, you just love them, no reason. That's unconditional. But… in my case… it's someone I know… my own flesh and blood, even! And seeing them in pain… you can't stand to see your people in pain, can you? Come on, Zelda, I know you're not as cold as you're pretending to be…"  
  
"Alright, I'm not." She let her arms slither back to her torso and extended her right. "Truce, then. I'll leave you alone, and after lunch you can come back and have all the library to yourself to look up whatever you want about your little spinning slash. Deal?"  
  
Link's face fell slightly. "Lunch? What time is it?"  
  
Zelda's outward hand tore back to her breast pocket and withdrew a ticking gold watch inlaid with gems. "Oh… 'bout… twelve-thirty, whereabouts…"  
  
This time, Link's expression was really drastic. "Twelve- thirty? Oh my Goddesses, I promised Saria I'd pick up Posie after school today! Arrg! I'm late! Late late late!" He scrabbled around his belt frantically, stuffing the fancy old book into the strap so it was cemented firmly between the leather band and the smooth, cool fabric of his tunic, and struggled against the band for a few seconds to draw out a small, blue, potato-shaped instrument riddled with tone holes. "Sorry Zelda, love to talk, got to fly!" The mouthpiece was between his lips and out was a haunting Nocturne with notes that seemed to glaze the room purple and form an invisible wall between the princess and her hero. Pressure mounted in her ears and then fell in a horrible pop that sounded like a Bombchu being detonated inside her head, and she opened her drooping eyes just in time to feel the gentle zephyr of coolness and the trickle of magic that sounded like rain on a metal roof. A whirlwind of purple sparks stood where Link had been, and they danced out the window, careening like mist, off in the direction of Kakariko village.  
  
"Aye, poor lad," clucked Ruto, who had come to while Zelda and Link were speaking and hauled herself up and had been gradually clunking, one rheumatic step at a time, up to the circle of ladder, bookcase, and persona formed. "Had eleven of the tykes meself. Had a good point, about not knowing unconditional love till you've met it yourself. Took a book with him though… perchance see what it was?"  
  
"Oh, don't worry about it, Ruto. It was an old book. Small one too, and thin. Tattered green cover… looked like iron edges, and rusty ones at that. Surely one book doesn't mean that much to you?"  
  
"Not just any book, no. But the most valuable book in this library, however… very old, very thin, with a tattered green cover and rusty decorations? The only book left in Hyrule that tells of legends such as the Sacred Flower prophecy and The Sage's Dealings?"  
  
Zelda turned grim and made a face as if she'd just swallowed something very sour. "Well… he's a good guy. He'll bring it back, I'm sure. And in the meantime, I'm positive he'll take good care of it."  
  
  
  
***********************  
  
Link's thrown tunic smacked Saria squarely in the face, and she got a nosefull of the odor of aging glue and dust before she peeled the sweaty garment away.  
  
"Eww, Link, gross! Throw your clothes in the hamper, for the Goddesses' sake. Honestly, you have the mannerisms of a seven-year-old boy."  
  
"Could you take it for me, Saria?" Link wiggled like a caterpillar out of his white undershirt, the high collar still sucking on his head as he drew his arms out from the clingy white sleeves and dragged the cloth away from his face. Upturned locks of smudged blonde hair flattened back down against his shining face, excepting for a few wispy ends charged with static that flittered about upright.  
  
"No I will not take it for you! I'm your wife, not your serving maid!" Repulsed, she gave the forest robe one horrendous look before she flung it over her shoulder and into the corner. She expected it to sail off the breeze from the open window and be carried to the handle of the closest, but instead, it was weighted down by some mysterious ballast and thudded down halfway with a fwumph that released a puff of air, billowing upward the tunic's sleeves before they ruffled under gravity's pull to the heap of green, lifeless. She gave the rumpling sleeve a curious glance and a raised eyebrow before Link caught her attention again with his chuckling rebuttal.  
  
"Ehh, same diff." She gave him a silent snarl and he a parrying cheeky grin with plenty of tooth. "Joking… joking… no need to electrocute me now…" The plain, off-blue nightshirt he squirmed into fell over his shoulders and dropped below his waistline before he took off his tights. "I'm sorry, Saria. I'll take my own tunic to the basket. Honestly I will. Happy?"  
  
She snuffed at the air, shoulders raised into a sullen arch. Her lower lip jutted out noticeably below her upper one, and her pupils were tight, even in the low light. The normally pillowy green nightgown, trimmed with lace, was now stretched like a wire frame over her fine, modeled structure. "Fine. I'm happy. Just get it out of here. I'm tired of you always leaving your clothes about. It's bad enough when it's just you, but get Posie started with that and you're good as dead, you hear?" Her scrunched arm, cemented to her side, had its elbow raised in a robotic fashion to point a sculptured finger at his face.  
  
"I'll save the will for later, then," and he strode over to the lumpy tunic and plucked it daintily up between his fingers.  
  
"Offf. Old garb feels a mite heavier than usual, it does. What'd I leave in my pockets this time, eh?" He bounced the material up and down in his fingers, holding his free hand below, and, distorting the fabric as it fell, the little, fancy old book came fumpheting down through the viridian folds to land squarely in Link's palm. "Well now, what have we here?" He began to turn the small volume over in his hands, pondering the bumpy, faded cover, not totally different from the color of his clothes, and the crumbling rusted hinges, more red and decaying brown than the mottled, sturdy iron they had begun as. Thinner-than-wafer-thin pages, written on brittle onion skins(onion paper, it was called), were embossed with the traditional line of gold leaf, shining brilliant on the long side opposite the spine and traced with greenish ink on the short top and bottom. The dusty sheets, some brushing away to become dust themselves, gave away the scent of dark, moldy wetness that indicated at some point or another, this book, like his father's diary, had been spilled upon at some point. He fingered the velvety rims, open sores to the wood frequently pock- marking them, and with a tentative figure inched the tome open to the first page of antediluvian, illuminated letters carefully scripted into the form of the first language of the Hyleans.  
  
"Ha! Looks like I must've accidentally taken this one with me when I left in such a rush." He tickled the pages like the edges of a flip book, riffling them and firing clouds of brown, foul-smelling grime into the air. Saria coughed. "Ahh, I'll be getting it tomorrow, I will."  
  
"Ah, but Zelda—"—she formed the name with obvious distaste—"—surely a single book wouldn't matter, would it? It's not like she keeps track of every last one of the books, is it?" Saria bent to flatten her fingers to the first of the leaf of the prehistoric doctrine, scanning gentle digits across copper-toned words. "Besides, from the look of it and the language it's written in—it's obviously a very old book, yes?"  
  
"Well, maybe the princess doesn't give a darn, but Ruto flips for this sort of stuff. Not that Ruto," Link added, noticing the confounded expression Saria was masked beneath, "the Minister—or to be more precise, Ministress—of Libraries. She'd have my head for a wall trophy if she found out I'd ferreted away one of her precious books."  
  
The image presented by this prospect was too good to bear, but she sealed her laughter behind a powerful mental dam and inhaled sharply. "I suppose you have a point, but… you can take it back in the morning and she'll never know the difference. And I still don't think Ruto or whatever her name is, despite the fact that she's the Librarian minister, is capable of reading ancient Hylean. Only the true Sages still posses that knowledge."  
  
"Well if you know so much about it then why don't you read it, Miss All Powerful Forest Mage?" Link pitched the book with a quick flick of his wrist to Saria, who caught it against her stomach double- handed. His disposition had turned slightly acidic.  
  
"Fine, I will!" Two could play at Link's little annoyance game. She began to browse the runes at an aggravatingly leisurely pace, soaking in the texts and the meanings that she knew Link would kill to be able to skim for himself. But no, she was his only link, to coin an appropriate phrase, to the mysteries that lay inscribed on that flaky paper. From what she had observed so far, it appeared to be a book of old legends, written in the order of which they were predicted or first taken note of. Some were prophecies, such as the Sacred Flower prophecy(which betokened that, some day, a "soul of true Soul would redeem the false Soul from Soulless hearts to fill them with the great violet essence to complete the empty polygon frame." A load of complete nonsense, as far as she was concerned) or the scriptures foretelling of the time when "the reign of blackness and smoke will end and the legends of Zenderlla and her champion shall begin." Part of the Treantè(the Hyrulean holy book) were these divinations, and it was respected by most that Zenderlla was probably some past man's interpretation of the name Zelda, or perhaps Zelda's old form. She wanted to find for Link the piece most saturated with fancy, squirrelly writing and mysterious dialect as she could, for she knew how terribly he detested the speech of olden times and how he was inept at making heads or tails of the stuff. A particularly fancy passage, starting with a great, illustrated A(or the past equivalent), caught her eye, and a woodblock press of a sparkling sword set in a pedestal inlaid with diamonds and other expensive jewels indicated a particularly mythical tale. Plus, the paragraph or so of heavily decorated writing was so mazelike in wording she herself could just barely deduce the meaning. Grinning fiendishly, she held the book at vast length like a farsighted scholar and recited with the dull drone of a school child:  
  
"And whereupon it be known that dwelling midst glacial ap'tudes peakst Ipanajou there live a Scholar of great mind, with his brethren aid hath he complied a large Tome en reading which tells of many great Battles and Wars, and many twixt his brother fought. Tragically his brother fell in one of these great Battles and he had demands't that he be rested in cold soils atop Ipanajou. Kindred soul Departed, the Scholar fell deeply dismay'd and ordered upon his death that merry, he, too, be placed inside that deep Tomb in 'twitch his brother lay. Anon, for frigid death upon white wings, and corpulence of his was found lying 'neath ice berry bushes. Laid down 'twas he in the musty Chamber, where his soul did Arise and meet his brother's passing. Set upon a great Pedestal was his brother's sword, 'twitch he imbued his Soul and Essence and his great Learning of the Ways of the Sword. Lest it now be known that he who first enters this Scholar's Tomb and places palms with the hilt of that Sword shalt gain the strength of Every Skill, for it is the sword of Obedience and giveth to the Holder its all power to control Every Sword by Every Name, for each unto its name spoken will instantly Obey, and perform any feet at the willingness of it's Holder's mind. Therefore, its Holder shall become the greatest Warrior ever known to Hyrule, for they shalt have command of all Swords."  
  
"Pah!" coughed Link. "Will you get a load of that dry old trash? Listen to it! First of all, Mount Ipanajou is the coldest, wettest, most desolate place on this entire shrouded continent, for the Goddesses' sake, so I don't see why any person in their right mind, let alone a scholar, would want to live there. And a scholar having good relations with a warrior, brother or not… no. And a person rising as a ghost to imbue their nature into a sword… good grief, the greatest fabrication these point ears ever heard. Control over all swords, honestly." He bowed his head and pivoted on a foot back towards the bed. "I'll be off to sleep now, if you don't mind terribly. Not like our conversation was going anywhere…" He adjusted his pointy green cap on that hat stand where it, too, slept, and clambered wearily beneath woven blue covers padded with goose down. "G'night, Saria. Love you always, my precious eriiko." He then laid his head placidly down on a billowing, cloudy pillow, eased his watering eyes shut tight and took a deep, relaxing breath. Saria stood watching him for a few seconds, eyeing his chest as it fell in a steady, rhythmic tattoo that seemed to time with the blustering of the shutters in the chilled night wind.  
  
Suddenly he had bolted upright quicker than a jolt from a Bari's tentacle.  
  
"That's it!"  
  
"What's what?"  
  
Link had performed a break-dancing sort of move, spinning around wildly and flinging the covers over on themselves like an omelet. He vaulted on to his feet and scrambled over to Saria, shouting "Give me that book!" and firmly grasping it in his hands, making an attempt to wrench it from her grasp. She did not make an effort to fight back, but her arms were dragged out away from her chest where they had clutched the volume in a cross pattern over ways. She merely jibed slightly with "Careful, that book's old!" as Link turned it over in his hands, then furiously flapped it open and snatched huge lumps of pages, frantically searching back and forth exclaiming, "Where is it? Where the heck is it?"  
  
Saria bumbled to Link's side and peaked over his shoulder, carefully extending a hand to try and quell the mad gallop at which it meaninglessly tore through the brittle parchment like a maniacal and ravenous carnivore that had just spotted a herd of easy prey. "Please, Link… calm down… what are you looking for?"  
  
"That page! Where is that page with the thing you just read?"  
  
"Oh! Please, stop it! You're destroying priceless knowledge!" Her hand, atop her contorted wrist, gripped the book by its spine, where all its pages came together, and a Link who had built up far too much momentum accidentally gashed through several pieces of the fragile report. He let slip from his hands the novel as easy Saria had let it flow past hers, and now the runic expert took the writings of the past and licked her thumb and forefinger to delicately pass pages through to come to the etching of the phosphorescent rapier. "There. This what you were looking for? I thought it was a load of dry old trash…"  
  
"No!" Link greedily stole the book back in the never-ending game of keep-away, then cradled the document in the bough of his right elbow and indicated, with his Triforce-emblazoned left, the span of the yellowing sentences. "Don't you see? This is it! This is exactly what I've been looking for! I can't read it, but you can and you just did, and it's all I've needed all along! Oh, imagine, if I'd never smacked that bookcase and hadn't tried to leave the castle in a hurry…!"  
  
Saria was utterly lost, and conveyed this to Link in a grisly face.  
  
"This sword… this Sword of Obedience, Saria! It's the answer to all of my problems! All I've got to do is hike up Mount Ipanajou, get this sword, and bring it back to Posie! Voila, no more spinning slash problems! Heck, no more sword problems, period! This blade gives its holder power over all swords! Power to do anything, Saria! Posie would become… would become…" The fervently zealous words snagged on his vocal cords in his throat. Dare he speak those sparkling, great golden words, opened up like a door before him? The most powerful warrior in all of the universe! It could be their little Posie! She, more famous than he with more power than he could ever posses in all of his lifetime! The sweat was glomming down his forehead, even though the dark was brisk. Oh, it had been years since he had felt his adrenaline pumping more brashly than blood through his veins! Since the leather straps encircling his sword's glistening hilt had the feel of true magic to him! It was not the sword; it was not the solving of Posie's problem; it was the wild, haunting call of adventure! True adventure! Not "Save-The-Village-From-The-Moblins," not "Exterminate- The-Hoard-Of-Skulltulas," but "Go-Out-On-A-Mystic-Quest-For-The-Rare-Magic- Artifact!" What he did, what it was truly his position in life to do! Once more it would be him, just him, contending with nature! Just him against the odds! Just him…  
  
Saria's voice cut with a record scratch through his glorified, half-waking dreams. "Not quite, Mr. Hero. It says it gives the first to touch it power over all swords. That would mean that Posie would have to be there to jerk the thing from the stone, which wouldn't mean that you'd have to… oh no. No no no no. Not that. Anything but that…"  
  
But as for "anything but that," it would look more like Saria would have to settle for an "all but that." Link's eyes were the flint of his soul, and sparks flew in all directions from their sapphire nature. The old, lunatic glint dappled across the pools of liquid blue fire, and the dream-like, scheming smile took priority over the plains of his face. A hint of "big daddy" was still there, of course. It would be ineradicable, because of Posie. And the calm, logical brain still held its terra firma in twitching ears, their tips alert skyward like a pair of antenna on the watch for enemy presence above. But this was the new—or rather, old—Link, who had a plot and a plan that had all been ignited by her big mouth. She had regretted those words quite as soon as she had said them. She knew he was going to try into launch into some ghastly humongous explanation of his first contrivance in five years, since Posie had been born and Zelda had been sent "sleeping beauty" by the late—good riddance—Ganon, now composed of various ashes scattered about Hyrule and who definitely wasn't going to be bothering them in a while. But instead he simply stood, mouth silent but eyes positively giddy—glancing off into the brilliant moon outside the wind, blue irises reflecting the musical beams and the silhouette of a gawky bird that glided past, with a royal purple corona highlighted by a bristly mud-colored tail and a shocking white crest. Link could almost make out its hooked, olive beak and bulbous eyes. A strange species to be sure, but there was hardly anything that could be doubted in Hyrule.  
  
"Good night, Saria," he said simply. "I must be getting rested. I have to go talk with a few members of the Royal Court tomorrow, if you don't mind." And with that he slunk back under the covers and drifted off into a dreamland full of legendary blades, grand adventures, and Posie Cassandra Blade, the greatest knight in all Hyrule's history.  
  
Yawning, Saria moved her thoughts away from the intoxicatingly beautiful moon and led them to the dejected tunic still lying on the floor. Poor Link—he never had quite gotten around to putting it in the hamper. Sighing at the futility of trying to get her lazy husband to do any chores, no matter how trivial, she reached for the sad little dropped piece of clothing and foisted it up into her arms. But before hobbling over to the hamper to toss the thing in as a candidate for the next wash, she took a moment to bury he face in the caressing folds of the suit and to intake a whiff of the wild smells of outside Hyrule that still clung in curtains, a(sometimes grim) curtain that never shut. The patches, the stains, every minute detail, right down from the ratio of the smell of dark, moist caves to evergreen forests, told her that this was the adventure tunic, the one he had worn on so many of his great expeditions. The wildest one of them all. But, strange fantasies notwithstanding, the shirt was badly in need of a good scrub-down, so she set it on top of a neatly folded skirt and a doll-sized outfit in the hamper.  
  
"What a twit," she mumbled to the dozing Link as she slipped herself into bed, "What a wonderful, wonderful twit." 


	5. The Forge

1 Spinning Slash, Chapter 5: The Forge  
  
KTHWAP!  
  
"Ouch, belly flop…"  
  
Posie vaulted herself back up to her feet and spat the taste of cold floor polish from her mouth. She ran her tongue over her teeth to make sure they were all still there, and with palms numb from their sprawl down to the sub-arctic tiles lining the temple grounds she smoothed the wrinkles in her tunic. No matter how many times Link took her to the castle town, or to the back of Kakariko Village so that she could get to school, or even retiring to home, the notion of warp travel via an ocarina melody simply did not go over well with her. Not so much the ocarina part as the warp. It wasn't that she got motion sickness—heavens no—but the sensation was simply so wholly bizarre that it nearly always caught her by surprise. First, there was the utterly eerie stillness that hung in the air as the last notes of any singular warp melody dissipated. Then there was the gasp of wind and what felt to be many little stones and leaves battering against her backside. She lost the feeling in her feet first, then the airheaded sensation as the first sparkles broke away from her form, following the wind as it went, and then slowly from the bottom up she disintegrated into little floating bits of magic as she temporarily lost consciousness. And then, she would be aware again, and in a completely different place, and so utterly discombobulated in her position that she often stumbled and fell. And of course, there were times when she came to a few inches off the ground, and suffered the disadvantage of a painful drop. In the forest this was tame, for their was a linoleum of soft moss and grass to catch her weight, and even the dry reeds surrounding the freakish Shadow Temple provided a little more support than they did itch. But stone coat of the Temple of Time and the stale, chilly air inside it made for less than a warm welcome.  
  
"I'll never—urg—get used to traveling that way."  
  
Link gave a satirical sigh. "Come on, Newton," he said, alluding to the fact that Posie and the famous scientist seemed to have similar tussles with gravity. "We've got to make double time to pick up Elaine and uh… get to where we're going by… when we're supposed to be there." His gargantuan hand reached down scoop up the flailing child in a quick swoop and bring her up into the cradle of his arms. "Maybe things will go quicker if one of us does the walking for both. No chance of you getting lost that way, at least."  
  
Posie nodded and leaned into Link's chest. She tried desperately to wiggle herself into a comfortable spot before Link began his swaggering gait and jittered her around into lying flat into his limbs and staying still. This was definitely the unfavorable choice, for not only did it mean, more or less, a gauntlet for a pillow, it also meant being pancaked against the rough cloth of his undershirt, which was itchy, hot, and unbearable. How a person could wear a piece of clothing like that all day—under their normal wear, nonetheless—and not be driven completely insane was beyond her. She had managed to find a suitable wedge to scoot in before Link marched from the dark, dogmatic light filtering in through the high windows of the temple and into the glorious, singing morning sun.  
  
Posie had been roused about an hour before, curious as she stared into her mother's face and then at her personal wall calendar(on which she marked off days) to make sure nothing was up. According to her marks, today was Saturday—a weekend, and therefore, no school. Sleeping in was one of those favorite weekend pastimes of hers that she had picked up from Link. But—if the Cucco clock was not deceiving her—it was seven, which was when she typically had to get up on weekdays to prepare for school. And this was more than a fluke of her internal timepiece being set a little early, but she had been deliberately woken—and now intended to know just why this was so.  
  
"Mommy… what is it?" She dragged the heavy green cover over her head and quite literally sunk back into her pillow, which was just about as big as she was if not bigger. "You know it's Saturday… no school today, 'member?"  
  
Saria jerked back the blankets and the little girl had a quick shiver shock at the sudden exposure to open air. "Don't look at me, your father wants you. He's taking you to Hyrule Castle Town after breakfast. No, I don't know what it's about either—" she answered the visual question imposed by Posie's facial expression. "All he says is that you're going there to pick up Elaine and have a talk with Mr. Parkerstine, and then the three of you are going to go to… well, you're just going to go someplace." In all earnesty Saria had been told by Link exactly where it was he was bringing the girls, but had been sworn to secrecy lest she care to have a taste of her own magic medicine via a red, sinister wand that Link had picked up from the mountain ranges of a small island he'd visited years before. But destination was the only thing known—purpose and reason still lived in the mist. She had a stinking suspicion that it had to do with the Sword of Obedience, as avoiding another one of Link's famous quests seemed now impossible. More than likely, they were heading towards… that place to stock up on supplies, and Link was going to spring the idea of the adventure on Posie there. But why was her bringing Elaine along? Unless he intended to take her along, too, to take Posie's mind off the terrible dangers that lay ahead and to convince her to go…  
  
She considered forgetting that she ever told Posie that she was wanted and having the child simply return to sleep, but thought against it. No, better let Link learn his own lesson. When he found himself knee deep in trouble and unable to do anything because of some hindrance Posie provided, having to resort to a bit of ocarina magic to save their hides, then he would see. They wouldn't get halfway to Ipanajou before they came back begging for healing magic. Hopefully, not for too much of it. Even she had her limits, and would prefer if they avoided getting hurt at all. Posie, being five, after all, was prone to the usual scrapes and bruises, but the high mountains at the other end of the country were dangerous to even an experienced trekker like Link. And it had been so long since he had last adventured! Simply fighting a few battles every week or so was nothing compared to the arduous journey of a true venture. Had he retained enough of his strength to survive?  
  
Ignorance was indeed bliss, though Saria serenely yet sadly, for little Posie could not know what was planned. Indeed, she seemed excited by the promise of her surprise and scurried around her room, hastily flinging off her flannel nightgown in exchange for her traditional Kokirish tunic(with a lengthened skirt-ruff), brown, leather boots, and belt with blue glass inlayings and a golden buckle. The Great Deku Sprout, despite the fact that he didn't share the particular fondness for Posie that some of the Kokiri did("A being who is only half Kokiri? Who has ever heard of such an outlandish thing?!"), he still was able to provide her with clothes that always exactly fit. Everything in her room had to be adjusted to fit her, as was shown by the fine(but doll-sized) hairbrush that she lifted and ran through her flyaway golden locks to reach a level of minimal straightness. She then stood on tiptoe, indicating that she was waiting for a kiss, and got one swiftly on the forehead before she scampered off to join Link at the table for breakfast before their excursion to the marketplace and… the other… place.  
  
Hyrule Castle Town was a bustling little medieval metropolis encased within the walls of the fort of Hyrule's great palace itself. It was built of stone and wood, with large, colorful rock shapes decorating the area around the fountain in the center of town. The many buildings and houses were modest but pleasant, and sufficed well enough for the numerous guards, officers, and civilians that lived there. Higher commanders, such as members of the Royal Court and the most revered knights, lived in large mansions behind the castle itself. Zelda had offered Link one of these houses at the time he was planning on getting married, but Link politely refused and stated that he'd rather remodel his old home in the Kokiri Forest so that Saria would never have to be far from the forest that she loved and was bound by destiny to protect. To be honest, he couldn't bear to part with the place any more than Saria could. But he still enjoyed visiting the hacienda that had been set aside for him, and was still reserved for his use only("In case you change your mind," Zelda had said). Though it was a beautiful place, it was much too rich for his tastes, and he preferred the quaint simplicity of houses like his friend Randy's little residence in the West side of town, which was only five rooms but was perfectly fine for him and Elaine.  
  
The marketplace in the center of the Castle Town was a colorful hodgepodge of street merchants, traveling performers, shoppers, families and their children, and the occasional guard off duty. Though it had been destroyed during Ganon's reign, the re-built version still had everything the original had and more. Several cafés and other restaurants had sprung up, including ice cream and pizza parlors which many children were grateful for. The owner of the ice cream shop happened to be a personal friend of Link's, who had done him a great service when he had been lost in an onslaught of torrential snow and desperately trying to reach his location. Nicholai, the man was called, had dragged Link unconscious from a mounting snow bank and taken him in to his small tent for the night. This had been a double deal, for in saving Link, he had also rescued Posie, very much awake, who at the time had been barely over a year old but knew trouble when she was in it. Though many owed their lives to Link, Nicholai was one of the few whom Link owed his life too, and therefore they were mutual friends. He was the first person outside of the forest—and the Royal Family—to know of Posie's existence, and had helped the others of his town comprehend her being when she had first come to the market square. Indeed, a good job he had done, too, for even though the odd twosome still got a few gawky looks here and there, most folks recognized them and greeted them warmly.  
  
"Oi! 'Allo thoir, Link me boy! Glad to see ye've brought the lass with you todoi, eh?"  
  
"And 'Allo' to you to, Jaq!" Link would have waved, were it not for the fact that Posie was currently keeping his arms pasted down.  
  
"Hello there, Link! Nice to see you in town!"  
  
"Hiya Malon!" Posie stood up(much to Link's distress; those little heels were quite painful if they were digging into your flesh) and waved over Link's shoulder to the carrot-topped woman carrying milk, who pretended to blush with a "how could I have forgotten?" look and waved with the arm not hooked beneath a basket of glass bottles.  
  
"Wow! Mom, look, it's Link! It's really him! Can I go and see him? Huh; can I, Mom?"  
  
The portly middle-aged woman gave her mousy-haired young son with amber eyes a smile. "I suppose, Dharli, but be polite. The poor man's not some zoo animal. And do be careful! You probably won't be the only one there!" She finished placing the last of the crisp, wind-blown clothes into her large, wicker, woven basket, and wobbled on to the carved, wooden door market with a golden nameplate. "I'll be inside when you're finished."  
  
Link smiled. Time to do the hero act. Better get a pen ready, too, just in case the kid asked for an autograph. Happened all the time. From the looks of him, the boy had been about eight or nine, probably too young to remember on his own any of the heroic things Link had done in the past. The things that he was famous for. But no doubt he had heard all the stories from his parents, and, judging by the woman's age, the boy had older brothers and sisters who had recovered some of the bloodier bits that their parents had left out before their sibling. And of course there was the everyday stuff—monsters attacking villages, bad guys trying to gain control of smaller regions of Hyrule, the basics. Even though it was a cinch for Link, no normal soldier was capable of standing up to those atrocities. Those stories—the more fantastic, the better—always leaked out among laymen.  
  
The boy with fawn hair and auburn eyes had a round, cherubic face with an impish, but not malicious, look about him. A glaze had spread over those sun-disks in his excitement. He jerked to a stop before Link, trembling ferociously and just barely managing to gargle out a few overjoyed words.  
  
"You… y-y-you're Link!"  
  
Posie "Duh!"-ed the child after he stated the shamelessly evident.  
  
Hearing another child's voice jolted him back into reality. "And you… you're… a little kid that looks a lot like Link! A really little kid."  
  
Posie giggled. "Yeah, so I'm vertically challenged. No big deal, right?" Bada-bing!  
  
"Oh, don't get so fussy about it," chided Link. "After all, folks of your character are in short supply!" Bada-boom!  
  
"Aye, what a headache," and the boy clutched his forehead. "You folks know each others or somethin'? 'Cuz if youse don't, I don't see why youse is carryin' her around or nothing, you know."  
  
Link nodded. "She's my daughter." Then, to a gaping cave of a mouth, "Bet you didn't know I had one, ehh? Well, you learn something new every day, don't you?" Link knelt and set Posie down on the ground so she could look up into the boy's paling face.  
  
"Hiya! I'm Posie! Nice to meet you!" Posie let her arm forward as far as it would reach in an indication that she was looking for a handshake. Still slightly addled, the boy went to his knees and took the hand between his thumb and forefinger and, carefully as if she were a brittle wooden doll found in some ancient ruins that might fall apart at any second, he maneuvered her hand up and down. She wrapped her insignificant palm around his finger and gave it as much as a bounce as she could muster. Which, for someone her size, was remarkably powerful. He could feel her little bolt of power jiggling his limb a bit more than he expected it too.  
  
"I'm Dharli," he replied, "Nice to meet ya too. It must be pretty cool having a dad who's so famous and strong, huh?" His eyes smiled down the tip of his lengthy nose.  
  
"Well, sometimes." Posie spoke into her shoes. "I mean, it's nice when you consider the fact that he gets all the special privileges and stuff and always gets stuff from the royal family for free, but I don't like it when we get mobbed in the market place and separated." Then, clumsily to Dharli's rapidly falling face, "Oh! But you're nice. Don't worry. When it's just one person it's OK, and if it's another kid then that's even better! A chance to meet new friends, you know. I don't have many."  
  
Dharli brightened for a moment and then sunk to a level of depression even greater than before. "Why not? Don't people like youse? You're not that bad, really. You even sort of cool. Don't people appreciate who ya are?"  
  
"No," Posie sighed bitterly. "They make fun of my size and my voice and pretty much everything about me that they can find to make fun of. The only person who's ever been nice to me before—besides you, of course, but still, you met my daddy first, not me—is Elaine."  
  
"Elaine? Elaine Parkerstine? That weird kid with the dress who speaks in gibberish? The guard's goil?"  
  
Now of course she liked Dharli, and Elaine wasn't around to hear that quip, but nevertheless, that stung. Although Elaine had her quirks, and was certainly smarter than the average five-year-old with a quicker tongue than a comedian, Posie didn't think she was "weird." There were a lot stranger in the world than Elaine, even if she did have a rather large brown birthmark on her back. Well, it wasn't a birthmark of normal sorts, but Posie was sworn to secrecy about its true origins. And Elaine didn't speak gibberish! It wasn't exactly Common Hylean(which was essentially English, but with a Hyrulean accent that few people still bore), but it was a real language that Posie had been learning slowly from Elaine. The Lingo, it was simply called, though not many knew who it was the Lingo of. Well, R'kulet bu gyyii r'kulet—people will be people—chirrn Ludores burron dijz ooqu.—and Posie would live with it. It wasn't your typical child who could speak a lost language. She suddenly felt proud of Elaine for not being afraid of her distinct, if not a bit obscure, heritage. Not to mention that fact that she actually knew what her middle name, Kimiria, meant.  
  
Dharli didn't wait for an answer. "Well, if youse is lookin' for her, youse ain't gonna find her here. She lives back a ways, no? Like, back down that way, you know?" He indicated a shadowed alleyway, a well-known shortcut through the heavily populated district to the more rural settings near the edge of the Castle Town's walls.  
  
"We know," said Link. "We were just going that way anyways. We'd best be moving on, too. Sorry to break up the conversation, but we really gotta run. See you around." Link picked up Posie again, who was only too happy to get away from the strange boy with so many misconceptions about Elaine and to get on to see her friend(who obviously knew her own secrets better than Dharli did) and join her for whatever surprise lay ahead.  
  
  
  
*****************************  
  
The steamy little house with yellowing morning light filtering through the buttery crisscrossed windows was a strange harmony of chaos and order, with everything strewn about in haphazard piles and lain about on the floor, yet the Parkerstines had inherited a bizarre tendency from all their years in the cottage that allowed them to find anything and everything at the exact time they wanted it. There were random heaps of this and that lumped together at the foot of the sofa, for example, but if you looked closely you would find that one pile consisted mainly of magazines who were missing their 27th page while the other contained left socks of the argyle variety with holes where a pinky toe should have been. Link, having been plastered to Saria's side for the past six years, was so used to cleanliness, order, and a strict sense of "a place for everything and everything in its place" that frankly it drove him nuts. When he accidentally knocked over a stack of photo albums alphabetized by the average of the years in which all the pictures were taken, set conveniently near the kitchen sink, Randy blew a fuse lighting the fires of his steely, guardly manner and began to flail about like a madman, making strange whining noises and was almost whistling through his nose as he pointed out that the most vintage of the books there had old, grainy photographs dating back to 423(Hyrule time) which actually belonged above the book classed in 517, three years ago. How this small duo of a family survived without losing their minds was beyond his comprehension.  
  
Randy was easily the first man Link had ever met with dishpan hands. The man delicately plucked fragile china between his beefy fingers to rub it down with a yellow cloth, then sunk it back into the sea of dark, foamy water to soak some more as he scrubbed another. And oddly enough he was as talkative as any woman while doing dishes. "So, Link, my man… what's it you want to talk to me about that so requires the kiddies to wait outside for you to tell me?" He etched his fingernail over a stubborn patch of spaghetti sauce left on a clear glass plate.  
  
"I'd also prefer it if you got up from that silly hunch and looked me in the face, Quasimodo."  
  
"Hey, chores gotta be done, don't they?" Randy extended to his full height, head nearly touching the ceiling, and turned around to face Link, dripping, soapy hands held woodenly forward, palms flat, and the overall effect of the frilly white apron paining to just barely stretch across Randy's front hilarious. Apparently it had been something he'd succeeded from his mother, because it only managed to cover the half of his chest(the rest of which was dark with wet stains) and the skirt front barely went to below his knees. Link knew that he, personally, wouldn't be caught dead in one of those, but Randy was certainly a different man. He was big boned and big hearted, with an iron will but a cotton candy soul. Much like Link himself, and yet not. Randy was far more feminine than Link, not afraid to be seen outside waving a broom on the cobblestones or flicking a feather duster at lamp shades. He knew how to cook, sew, clean, and wasn't half bad at singing, either. He always tried his best to compensate for the lack of an alpha female in his household, and to be to Elaine both the father that was there for her and the mother she had never had. Or at least, hadn't had for as long as Link had known her. It was a very touchy matter that Randy had never spoken to him openly about, and whenever Link asked, he quickly changed the topic. Link wondered if it had possibly been something illicit, but Randy's reply left him as is not more mystified than when he had begun: "The only thing dirty about it were the rules she was tyrannically forced to obey." Link had decided then to stop asking then and there and just leave Randy to his secrets.  
  
"Suresuresure, whatever." Link brushed in front of his face. "Look, I got a couple of questions for you… and pay attention, for goodness sakes'!" Randy was trying to submerge his hands in the sink again.  
  
"Fine, fine. Just let me get the grease from this plate here…" He vigorously wiped the plate's surface with the yellow rag, then set the glistening wet platter on a wooden rack to dry. "Alright, Greenie, shoot. Or should I say, stab."  
  
Even in his vexed mood, Link couldn't help but smile. It was a feeble joke, to be sure, but effective. "So, Ironman… what would you say to the thought of Elaine going for a little hike in the mountains?"  
  
"Ahh, hiking! A truly vigorous activity! Not to mention that it builds character! Sounds like a good idea! Why do you ask?"  
  
Link had his hands folded and had a colluding look. "What if the mountain were… cold? Snowy? Dangerous?"  
  
Randy raised an eyebrow. "Err, well, if she had a coat and as long as there was someone there to guide her… what's this about anyway?"  
  
"What if that mountain she was to go hiking up was Mount Ipanajou?"  
  
For a moment, Randy was deathly silent. His normally flushed skin was pale as the snow of the aforementioned peak, his eyes unfocused and shimmering. He arced his arms over his head as he spoke, then knitted them into a knot over his heart. "Okay, I'm serious this time. What the Gel are you up to? And what's it got to do with Elaine?"  
  
Link had a sarcastically questioning finger to the side of his mouth. "You ever heard of… the Sword of Obedience?"  
  
Randy fell back onto a wooden stool, stamped firmly in place by a stack of burned-out candles surrounding it like a clump of roots, and he placed his hands behind his head and yawned. "Nope, but it sounds like some mystic relic or another you'd go chasing after." He propped his enormous feet up on the handle to one of the drawers lining the shelves beneath the counter. His thick stomach muscles rippled as he improvised on the situation by doing sit-ups. "And you want to take Elaine with you, do you? What's wrong with Posie? After all, she's the one opting for the 'family business,' no?"  
  
"Posie's coming too. I wanted Elaine to help keep her company. It's a long road to the misty mountain tops. I'd make sure to protect her valiantly as I am bound…"  
  
Randy grunted, more from distaste than the strain of exercise. "And you… expect me to oblige? You must be out of your mind, right? You're forgetting that Elaine is all I have, you know. If it weren't for her, I'd have no motivation to do this job, right? Forget about me, I want the best for her. I've had no other reason for even trying since that little scandal booted me from my old job."  
  
Two other things Randy was vague about, right there—his "old job"(which he never defined) and the "little scandal" that had him fired(which he never defined either.). It begged the question as to why he mentioned these things and made so many references to them if he never intended to talk about them. It was if one of the Goddesses(or some other cosmic being with ultimate power over destiny) was making him drop hints as to something to be. Link could almost hear the sardonic laughter—it was high-pitched and tittery, like that of a thirteen-year-old girl with the power to manipulate their lives.  
  
"Pleeeeeaaaaaase? It's absolutely essential that she's there. Aside from being an aid to Posie, she is admittedly one of the best morale- boosters I've ever met. Without her, we'll never make it. I know I'm asking a lot, but…"  
  
"No, no buts." Randy cut him off before he could finish. "I suppose I could let her go. Probably be a treat for her, exploring Hyrule with her best friend and the guy who's fame is only second to the King's. But if anything happens to her, you'll be finding a spear through your stomach, buddy, you hear?"  
  
Link quietly "Yes!"-ed to himself, then coughed a small bit of slime from his throat and said properly, "I mean, thank you. You're a good guy, you know. Putting so much trust in me. Well, don't worry. Even if we get into trouble, I'll have my ocarina, remember? I can bring her home in a flash. And whether we find the sword or not, I'll make sure that we bring you home a souvenir, kay?" Link turned his back to Randy and began to leave for the door.  
  
Discreetly Randy mumbled, "Fine, but it better be a good one."  
  
  
  
*****************************  
  
"So let me get this straight. The first part of our surprise is where we're going… the second part is what we get when we're there… and the third part is where we're going afterward?" asked Elaine as they moseyed over a heap of stones that lay in the path of the inconspicuous dirt trail Link had shown to them. Normally he would have taken the obvious way, but that would have told them in an instant their destination. This tracing, well hid in one of the darker sections of alleyway, was known only by him and a "friend" of his and was used mainly for quick jaunts under disguise to the marketplace and back. It was rude and filled with pools of stagnant water and jagged rocks, but if you could hop the puddles and kick aside the rocks, it wasn't bad traveling. It wove through a maze of high stone walls bearing tall trees on the other side, and the splotches of light that filtered through the patchwork of spruce needles gave a dreamlike, canvassed look to the place. A few windows crossed with iron bars provided occasional glimpses of the world around, which consisted mainly of bark-clad evergreen trunks, but Posie thought she could see a luscious green garden beyond, the sweet smells of exotic flowers wafting to her nose. It reminded her of a scene in The Silver Sapphire(her favorite book, which was actually a complex fantasy novel): Sir Edrill, the noble Derxelholmian knight(Derxelholm being a small country in Ebridane, northeast of Hyrule in the Derxian Peninsula) had been trapped in a burning hedge maze by the evil Fireduke, and he had to escape before the fire reached the fountain of kerosene in the middle of the maze. Edrill was lost, until he realized that he could follow the scents of the flowers at the other end of the garden. One of her favorite parts.  
  
Posie could see the light widen beyond the next turn in the lane and realized, with a jolt, that they were almost out. Her thoughts had been swimming so rapidly that she had had no time to realize that they'd been traveling at an alarming rate, and were at the end almost as soon as they begun. But traveling to where? If they were nowhere, then what good was haste in getting there? An amazing precipice of sheer stone that would have been amazing even to a tall person like Randy left Posie absolutely breathless. Brick after gray brick meticulously stretched above her, its even path interrupted rudely at moments by fine glass windows, so old that, by judging from the one closest to the ground, that they were considerably thicker near the bottom than the top, as glass is just barely a liquid and sinks very slowly over time. A bendy, middle-aged guard with quite a few wrinkles around his eyes slept leaning on the butt of his spear, the tip sunk into the ground. The visor of his helmet lolled in front of his nose, the fine, foggy hairs of his mustache buffeted this way and that in the slipstream. Link walked up to the man and jabbed him in the shoulder blade with an accusing finger.  
  
"Psst! Hey, you! Guard person!"  
  
The man fumbled awake, saw Link standing over him, and fought to pry his spear from the ground so he could stand up proper and look regal. "Password?" the man proclaimed, and the bristly coat of hair beneath his nose trembled.  
  
Link made a fearful-looking gesture as if to pull out his sword, but his hands never went quite all the way back and instead mimed holding the rapier. He began making fierce slashing motions in the direction of a rather shaggy-looking bush. He puffed up his cheeks and made squeaky noises as he proclaimed, "Dang! The weeds are getting out of hand again!"  
  
Posie gave a slightly spitting giggle and told Elaine that Link looked like a mad Deku Scrub. Or at least, that was the jist of it. Her precise words were actually, "Daddy looks like one of those funny wooden plant people gone on rampage!" Still, Link's curious act seemed to satisfy the sentry, who mashed his spear on the ground with a "Proceed." He stepped aside from an iron door encrusted with rust, as if it had been submerged underwater for a long period of time and then removed. Or perhaps, generations of rain and sleet had caked its surface the ocher shade. The only signs that anyone ever touched the door was a glaring, tarnished streak that looked like someone had been kicking the door in frustration to get it open. The handle, too, seemed loose, which made sense as it probably took a great deal of wrenching and tussling about to twist it. Link put a hand on this twisted doorknob and fingered it lightly, then had a sudden insight before making the turn and turned around to face Posie and Elaine.  
  
"Girls… have you ever heard the saying that you can never judge a book by its cover?"  
  
"Yes," they nodded.  
  
"Well… tell me… from what you've seen so far, what would you judge this place to be… by its cover?"  
  
"Hmmph," Elaine shrugged, "I'm guessing just some old, dilapidated place or another that is being guarded so no one gets in and hurts themselves, right?"  
  
"Yeah," seconded Posie, "Just an old dilap… dilapi… delapilated… whatever she said kind of place that's guarded so no one goes in and gets hurt. Right?"  
  
Link turned back to the door. "There, you see? From the outside, this side, it looks old and bleak. But, things aren't always what they seem. Right?"  
  
"Duh," nodded Posie. "Aren't I living proof of that?"  
  
Link chuckled. "So you are, love, so you are. But as is this place. From the outside… you see a crumbling old heap. But inside…"  
  
There was a creak; the door swung open.  
  
"I give you Hyrule Castle."  
  
Every inch the door swung seemed to intensify the gasp as the it yielded to an amazing rotunda whose very walls seemed to be inlaid with gold. Glistening yellow serpents and wyrms coiled protectively over sparkling columns inlaid with gorgeous jewels as big as Link's fist, and little flecks of gold bouillon were chipped away from their bars and yet in the stunning mural sprinkled on the floor, into the shape of three golden triangles, the space between them piled with chunks of cobalt blue stones. Intricate leaves were carved of the amber metal, and the everlasting ivy wound constrictingly over every square inch. Huge aureate statues loomed over every corridor, each depicting a different aspect of Hyrule's rare gift of magic. A glimmering eagle clutched a smaller rendition of the Triforce in its talons directly opposite Link and company, and around it were clustered many smaller creatures each with a smaller symbol. A wispy- looking, twiggy hand wrought its decrepit fingers about a small disk, engraved with a triangle formation similar to the pattern on that of the plate held in the beak of a sagely intelligent owl. A Deku Scrub had wedged, into its nozzle, another medallion with a vortex design, and one that Posie recognized instantly from the necklace her mother wore. A dragon tossed a fourth medal about its horns, bearing a three-pronged flame; a fifth was cradled in the tail of a leaping dolphin with pointed splotches and circles. The last of the pendants, set in the lantern of a wild-haired, dark faced ghost, resembled a separated yin-yang. All of this scene came into being from gold, and it captivated the children with magnetic force. Never before in their lives had they been so strongly urged to just stand there, and gawk above them. It seemed a shame to putrefy the scene of purity by trodding over the galactic centerpiece with their spoiled soles.  
  
The dazzling corridor had temporarily nullified their minds and Posie rather stupidly choked out, "Wow. This is a big room," which was quite an understatement to say the least.  
  
"Knew you'd like it," said Link, "Just knew you would. Huge place, huh?" he inquired as he clamped Posie on the shoulder. Without waiting for a reply(or perhaps he had meant for his first question to be rhetorical), he continued, "Nothing's too good for good ol' King Mercutioe and Princess Zelda. They're the best pair of rulers this county's ever seen, Posie. His Highness has been the King as long as I can remember, and from what I'm heard, I should be grateful for this. You know, it wasn't too long before you were born that a particularly nasty wizard tried to usurp the throne from our good King and imprisoned Zelda. Not like I have to tell you what happened…" His eyes gave a mischievous twinkle and he grinned. "So, girls, ready for a grand tour of the castle? You'll get to see everything. Even the places normally off limits! How's that for the first part of your surprise, ehh?"  
  
"Oooh, that'll be terrific!" Little Posie had snapped out of her trance and tossed it aside like a bad dream, squealing in delight at the thought of getting to run through the castle and jaunt about the hallways and ballrooms and zillions of guest rooms. Perchance, even, meet the princess…?  
  
"Yup! But there's only one condition—you've got to do me both a favor. How's that? Still going strong?"  
  
Elaine gave a shrill laugh. "Of course it is, Mr. B! What's the chance of a lifetime, exploring the castle, to a little old favor, huh?"  
  
"Alright then. Neither of you is to follow me when I leave here. You listening? Stay here."  
  
"Aww! But then when do we get to tour the castle?"  
  
"First I have to go finagle with a couple of the royal authorities about a little deal we made a while ago," he said rather mysteriously. "That shouldn't take too long. When I get back, I'll take you through the castle. That should take a few good hours. Drenenn ought to have finished by then, so I'll go to him, retrieve the finished product, and then I'll present you the second part of your surprise over lunch in the great dining hall. Sound good? That's all you have to do, wait."  
  
He was met by a pair of rather solemn nods. "It won't be more than a couple of minutes, right? We'll wait, but we don't wanna wait too long," sighed Elaine.  
  
"If everything goes right, you won't have to be lounging around more than a half hour. Now I must be off… tata for now, children, and be good!" And with an instructing finger in the air, he disappeared down the hallway guarded by the golden dragon with the fire round.  
  
The ominous, glowing room seemed to empty and cold without Link's warming presence. Distraught, Posie and Elaine slumped their backs to each other and slid painfully to the floor, so ugly without something just as magnificent to compare it to. The towering figures above seemed to glower disdainfully at them, and the beasts encompassing the pillars holding up the immensely high ceiling looked ready to fire jets of flame at moment's notice. Posie looked reproachfully down the colonnade Link had taken and crossed her arms in disgust.  
  
"We shoulda just followed him anyway," she grumped caustically.  
  
Half an hour later Link had not returned.  
  
Posie and Elaine had resorted to rounds of tic-tac-toe in the powdery dirt left behind by their shoes and a couple of games of "Go Fish" with the pack of cards Elaine had procured from her pocket, which was actually rather useless as it contained too few of some cards and too many of others but made the game more interesting nevertheless. It was a good thing they were the small sort of cards, as Posie's hands were quite small as well and she had difficulty even with these. Cards would sporadically plummet to the floor from the edges of her hand. This was both good and bad for her, for the overload of cards meant that she was winning but it also meant that Elaine could easily see her hand and would know what to ask for next time it was her turn. She was just about to inquire for the ten(one of six) she had seen in Posie's set and needed desperately to complete another book when they, at long last, heard a male voice echoing down the hall. Posie cocked her head to listen.  
  
"Not quite up to your usual standards, I'm afraid, but smashing nonetheless," the jovial, potbellied voice chortled, much deeper and smoother than Link's with a hint of tittery accent.  
  
A high, sugary voice pealed up to the rafters in return. "Oh, Daddy, you know I'm a horrible speech maker!" The woman who replied had a laugh like the song of a million birds at dawn, and despite her retort her every word was like a speech unto itself. "Oh, but what does it matter, really? It was only a practice. I'm not giving the real announcement till tomorrow. But I'll be sure to practice, OK?" Satiny strides now echoed up and down the enormous architecture.  
  
Posie let down her hand of cards, pressed tight up against her face, and whispered frantically to Elaine. "Who's that? What if they see us? We could get in trouble! We probably aren't s'pposed to be here!" She was cramming all her cards together in a stack and foisting them on the muddled girl at the same time as she was trying to spread out some of the dry dirt from their shoes so nothing showed. "C'mon! Hiiiide! You wanna get your hide toasted?"  
  
"But… if we say we're with your dad…" The clay-haired child found her arms overflowing with cards as Posie shoved and cajoled the protesting Elaine behind a crimson tapestry conveniently located between the corridors proclaimed by the owl and the Deku Scrub. The golden, braided trim that rimmed the velvety material for a good three inches on all sides was enough to provide decent cover-up for their legs and feet, and also allowed them to observe the visitors to the rotunda without being seen themselves.  
  
Posie silently dismissed her baited breath when the graceful, lilting Zelda and her father King Mercutioe, a stumpy man with a scraggly gray beard and a round, mountain of blubber padding him from all sides, pattered into the giant circle from the slightly shaded hall with the morose hand above it. The King's beady little blue eyes, squashed beneath reddened, cherubic cheeks, searched the room anxiously for a moment as her wobbled around, on his great sausage legs, scanning the area. "You know, Zelda," he said more to the air than to his daughter, "I thought for a moment I heard voices in here before we came in. Small, squeaky little voices. Like mice chattering betwixt themselves."  
  
"Oh, Daddy, you know mice don't talk," groaned Zelda, though without satire. "Besides, who would have been in here? This may be the Grand Rotunda, but, well, normally that door there opens out into the garden, and I certainly haven't sent any gardeners out today… and besides, none of them have voices like mice. You were hearing things, I'm sure."  
  
Posie was deathly tempted to burst out from behind the wall hanging and ask how it was that the outside door could normally lead once place or how it was that if, the door was built into the garden, they had entered it and been in the back alley path, but she knew to hold her tongue. She had seen—or, to be more precise, heard—a man once in The Silver Sapphire beheaded for trespassing on royal property. Or at least, almost beheaded. Naturally, good Sir Edrill had broken into the dungeons to save the innocent, who had really been trying to tell the princess that the Fireduke was planing a hostile takeover. Posie hoped that the King and Zelda were better than that, and The Silver Sapphire was only a book after all, but just to be safe… the King had gone back to muttering about the voices he'd heard and Posie silently thanked the Goddesses and the Triforce for her good luck and shuffled over to Elaine.  
  
"Come on, it was just a trick of sound—probably just an echo caused by the halls. Now really, Daddy, we must get moving. We promised Daatthu we'd meet him for a conference on the state of agriculture in… well, hello, what do we have here?" Zelda meticulously snatched a stray card from the floor. Posie's throat constricted instantly. In their haste to become hidden, they had been clumsy about not leaving a trail—and a great deal of Elaine's cards had been thrown about as they had fled, and a path of hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs marked clearly the path they had dashed out as they sprinted for the drapery. Elaine shook her head and held her forehead in her twisted palms—as though trying to force it to stay on her shoulders.  
  
"And here's another… and another… and another! My, someone must have had quite the urge to play Fifty-Two Pickup. Now the only question is… who do you suppose…" Zelda was forming a neat little deck in her left hand as she delicately folded them there with her right. Even the smallest of her gestures was dainty and imperial.  
  
Posie's voice caught on a hook in her throat and came out as a gurgling, sloppy noise that resembled a cough, but was more like the noise someone made to either clear phlegm or something slightly more obnoxious. She had wanted to scream "Don't kill us!" but now realized how purely idiotic that would be and snagged herself just in time. The overall effect was disgusting, though, and she grimaced as she wiped a spray of spittle from her lip with her arm. Zelda hadn't heard. Not like it mattered. She was nearing on their hiding place.  
  
"Seems to stop at the tapestry, dear… funny, it is looking a little lumpy…"  
  
Posie settled for a gulp this time.  
  
Zelda whooshed the hanging back at the same time as Posie defensively put her arms up to her face and shrieked, "DON'T HURT ME!" as the golden-enhanced light fell on her persona. Elaine pessimistically fumbled her armload of cards and grumbled, "Great. We're in for it," while shaking her head. Zelda seemed almost as shocked to see them as they were to see her and gave a womanly wail like the low notes on a flute that warbled into treble clef and out again. In an almost relievingly clumsy move, she churned over on her heel, flung the cards she'd collected about in terror and fell with a satisfying fwumph as air escaped her pillowy dress on her regal rear.  
  
Posie cautiously let down her arms at this din and peered like a curious ape over the fine blonde hairs on her pink arm, seeing the Princess fallen and rubbing her bruised posterior. She wondered deftly for a moment if she'd scared Her Majesty. "Sorry" seemed too uncouth a remark and "uh, I didn't mean it," which would have been her reply under normal conditions, was right out. She had to be polite as possible. Although Link had never taught her much about behaving around royalty, as he hadn't expected the two to get to know each other so early, Sir Edrill always had to be courteous around the Queen of Derxelholm. And inferiority. That was key. Should she even speak without being spoken too? Even Elaine was a little spooked at the prospect of the proper behavior. Even more meekly than was usually for her average personality disguise, she whispered, "Please excuse me, Princess. I didn't—"  
  
"Wha what?" Zelda had somehow contorted from massaging her behind to her forehead. "Could you repeat that?"  
  
Had even that been too crude for the Princess's delicate ears? Her blood turning to ice in her veins, Posie repeated, this time a little louder but hopefully sweeter. "Please excuse me, Princess."  
  
Zelda blinked. "Again."  
  
Although the sensation was uncomfortable, she tried not to let the lightning bolts sizzling up and down her nerves jump into her arteries. She would speak louder, and sweeter still. Though it annoyed her, she would repeat those words over and over until the Princess was pleased. "Excuse me, Princess."  
  
Zelda licked her lips. "My ears deceive me, I believe. Do it once more. Just once."  
  
Electric daggers nudged at the cage containing her outrage. This Princess was turning out to be quite the stuck-up brat! She could stand it once or twice but this was a bit much. Perhaps she should… no, sarcasm was not an option. But it dangled as a proverbial carrot before her! Maybe if she let just a little into her words, Her Majesty would get the idea. "Ex- cuse me, Princess!" Did she catch the drift?  
  
Apparently not. "Ahh, my mind is making me hear things that aren't there. I'm sorry to go against my word… I PROMISE I won't ask again."  
  
That was the last straw! She was sorry, indeed! If she wanted an apology, she'd get it, alright—Posie Cassandra Blade style!  
  
"Well, ex-CUUUUSE me, Princess!"  
  
Zelda was alum-faced, but her eyes seemed to grimly smile satisfaction. "Just what I thought. Sorry again for all that—well, you know, you look a lot like one of my advisors, and he used to say that—all the time—and for a moment I thought… but no. I can see it now. Didn't mean to agitate you. You're such a precious little thing, to be truthful—like a living doll! And you're sweet, of course, too—" She hastily added the last with an afterthought with a look at a downcast Elaine.  
  
"Thank you, Your Majesty," droned Posie who was now trying to calm the sea of wrinkles in her bunched tunic. Wanted to look her very best. What was it that the ladies always did before the Queen of Derxelholm? Curtsy, that was it. Posie pinched the edges of her tunic-skirt and kneeled forward on her knee, hoping it was the proper genuflection. A discreet, sideways-aimed kick evoked a similar bow from Elaine.  
  
There were those million birds and silver bells again as Zelda laughed, in the same nectar-laden voice that had whistled in the hallway before. "Oh, now, don't be so silly! You don't need to curtsy! We're proud, but we're not demanding monarchs. Princess and King, in layman's terms. Come on now, up! Up on your feet! We'll have none of this. Look up into our faces!"  
  
Though Elaine could comply without a single complaint, silent or voiced, this result in quite a neck strain for Posie, though not so much for the pancaked King Mercutioe as for the lanky Zelda. She made a mental note to herself to wish for height if she ever got her hands on the Triforce. She could never hope to be the greatest warrior in Hyrule if her full-grown self was little more than three feet tall. Growth spurt, she prayed, growth spurt.  
  
"Oh," Zelda cooed, "you're even more adorable when you stand straight like that! Ooh, you've got such charming blue eyes, you do, and your hair! I'll bet silkworms would swoon over that hair!"  
  
"Adorable" wouldn't have been the word Posie used. In fact, she considered herself to be a bit less than physically attractive. She had the widest shoulders of any other five year old she knew, and her nose was comically large and high-bridged for her face, though it was easier to tell it from the side. She had eyebrows so fair they were practically invisible, and her eyes were large and shiny as marbles. Her flat cheekbones and lips didn't aid to her plight, ridiculous considering her round face, and her legs and arms had that pudgy look of youth about them. She though she had a body shaped like a tube. And her hair was wispy and flyaway. Was that considered cute? She could just imagine herself fifteen years from then, the Royal Protector, and Queen Zelda calling her "cute." And she was short, to top it all off. Top? What a grim pun, she chuckled sourly to herself.  
  
"Oh, you don't like that, then? Fine, you look horrible. Just to look at you hurts my eyes!" She hyperventilated into hysterics and Posie smirked difficultly. This Princess was a bit too silly for her own good, she thought. Posie wasn't entirely sure she liked her. She reminded the child a mite much of her cloaked self, toddling and innocent, a master of naivete. But there was no excuse here, for Zelda was a grown woman! Perhaps this was what a sheltered life did to a person. Anyone who could have glanced into her mind at that fleeting moment would have been amazed that such a lass could pensive thoughts of that complexity. That same omnipotence might also wonder when the last cleaning lady had dusted Zelda's brain free of kidling cobwebs. She was not quite the brightest bulb in the box, to be sure, but if you told her that, she would probably just stand there bewildered as to what sort of bulb you meant. Again, electricity did not like to rear its head around Hyrule for the magic.  
  
Thankfully, Elaine urged her nerves into doing what Posie's could simply not coaxed into. "Your Majesty, I don't mean to be rude, but it is ungainly for you to be rolling around on the floor like that. It isn't even that funny really."  
  
Oh, yes, you're right, child. I'll get up. I'm sorry. I amuse myself so much sometimes. Simple things, really…"  
  
"Simple things amuse simple minds," Elaine inconspicuously bent down and mumbled in Posie's ear.  
  
"What?"  
  
Briskly Elaine rose. "Nothing, Your Majesty. Just… sharing a joke with my dear friend here. We really must be getting out, you know. Just, ah… out the way we came? Can't keep you busy."  
  
"Nonsense! Even if you tried to leave, you'd find that door behind you locked until you gave it a destination, and I'm quite sure you don't know your way around the castle in the least sense. Please… let me. I can show you any place in the castle you like. What do you say?"  
  
"Err…" Posie and Elaine looked at each other. Link had already promised them a tour. But then again, Link hadn't come back yet, and waiting was an awful chore. Zelda had spent her whole life here, and doubtless knew every secret passage there was to know. Even though a ditz she was, and very much her hair color, she was still royalty, and think of the stories they could share back at school! If Posie's parentage wasn't enough to boost her social life, then being taken about the palace by the Princess herself would! Even if the others didn't believe! But Link had told them… oh, fudgetabout what Link had said. This was the chance of a lifetime! He could find them. They nodded in unison.  
  
"Wonderful!" Zelda spastically clapped her hands together in excitement. "Now, what are you girls interested in? Food? We have a wonderful kitchen. Fairy tales? Our library has more than enough bedtime story material to last you a lifetime. Games? I can show you our personal stadium. Flowers? The gardens are always a treat! Come now, name anything!"  
  
They eyed each other again, smiling viciously to one another and whipping back forward. "Knights," said Posie. "You know, the big tough guys who risk their lives for the land. The brave men and women who valiantly fight for justice and freedom! Shining armor is optional, but, always a plus. Got anything along those lines, Your Majesty?"  
  
"Oh, please, call me Zelda. Got your hopes set on marrying one of those tall, handsome soldiers one day, do you? Well, I have just the thing for that!" Posie winced at her giggling and remembered that some kinds of birds screeched and squawked instead of chorusing glamorously, and that even bells of priceless silver could crack. What an exasperating noise that was now! How could anyone her age even begin to worry about things that would happen more than a decade from then? True, some girls were betrothed to another as soon as they were born, and in that case, a boy who grew up to be a knight was a very fine catch indeed. But even so, the girls would rarely think of their future husbands as tots! No such arrangements had been made for Posie, thank goodness. She had the strong urge to whine in this overgrown brat's face. But now was not a time to erupt. Calmness, her mantra played in her head.  
  
"Err, no. Actually, hoping to be one. We're not really interested in boys yet."  
  
"Oh." The princess seemed veritably subdued and placed her hand across her front. "Well, there's a change in plans then." Premature wrinkles in her forehead groaned of melancholy, perhaps because these strange new friends of hers did not share her beliefs. But, not being out of the castle much, she was a beggar in her own right, for friendship. And indeed, beggars cannot be choosers. They would have to suffice. She could count the number of personal friends she'd had up to then on one finger—and Link could still be an awful blockhead at times. Better to find them while they're young and generous, with all the friendship in the world to give—and kindness, too. These girls were polite. They knew how to act around royalty, albeit a bit too well.  
  
"Ah, fine then—no big deal. I was going to take you to the Knight's Hall, our little museum of our best, but, well, apparently that sort of thing isn't your gamut. Maybe you'd like to see the forge instead."  
  
"The forge?" synced the words as they beat their way out of gaping mouths.  
  
"Yes… where our blacksmith works. You do know what a blacksmith is, correct?"  
  
Posie made a "Duh!" sound in her throat. This might not gloss over quite as well as they'd hoped, if Zelda kept taking them for idiots… pot kettle black. "A blacksmith is a person who works with metal. I know all about them. They make everything from horseshoes to cauldrons to weaponry… We'd get to see a real one's workplace?"  
  
"Yes! Our royal blacksmith is one of the best. He looks tough, but he's softer than melted iron at his core. Plug your ears, though. Curses like a sailor, he does. Come along!" She beckoned her arms and skittered down the dragon's lair. Exchanging one last glance of their mutual, visual language, they pattered after the princess down a deep crimson-plated cavern of fire-flecked marble and steep black pillars armored in yellow-orange opal. Tapestries milled about the walls here too, and Posie stopped for a moment to appraise a large silken one, picturing a stylized human figure, green, tan and brown, looking daggers at a solidly inky midnight reflection, standing guard over a dreaming pink crescent in the bowels of a feverent volcano. Elaine tugged at her collar just as the girth of the situation in thread came to light, and the most she ever had time to work out was a man facing his shadow in order to save the sleeping, flat moon—who she now knew to be a person. Perhaps it was symbolic of nightmares and combatance of fear…? No, that was wrong; why then did the snoring one not resemble the man and his eclipse? Her feet refused to pedal and she found her leather soles thunking against steps rising from the floor and swathed in red carpet, scar-dipped from use. A similar shape held a silver hammer to the maw of a masked, horned, glitter-eyed serpent, rising from a pit of lava with strands of crewel fire soaring behind. Her dissatisfaction with the impertinent heiress was probably what caused her to mistake her own father, stitched as a legend into the story-hangings, for some Hylean folk hero.  
  
Zelda was wailing up ahead as they approached cleaner, whiter walls pockmarked with wooden, iron, stone and even gold and silver doors. Something about the importance of each. One, she mentioned, was the quarters of the Court Sorcerer and Minister of Wizardries, a long-toothed man with a wildly impronounceable name like "Shahazadeh" or "Shaherhalla" or something like that. It had started with an "s-h" sound, anyway. Another door on the left… kitchen. There were no more doors along the hall's length for a ways after that. Except on the right… fire chiefs, warrior mages, various other things… except they could all somehow be related to fire. An ingenious organizational system, if you had the patience to admire it. Posie, unfortunately, had had most of hers purloined from her and dumped into the waiting skull of Zelda. She seemed so easily at peace now, and Posie wanted to shout. Psychically, Elaine mumbled over her shoulder, "I'm putting you down now, so you'd better put your own legs to work. My arm is sore. And by the way, could you not make a scene? I can feel the vibes. At least it's better than Go Fish with a mutilated stack of cards, right?"  
  
Posie snarled something under her breath. "How is it everyone always knows what I'm going to do next?" She straightened out her folding neckline, creasing the pleats back in place and returning the bit of jaunty poof to her undershirt.  
  
"You've got an aura, Pose, I swear. A green, swirly aura. Hey—blame it on your mom. You told me yourself, you got magic from her…"  
  
"I can just barely manifest a couple of floating green lights on the tip of my nose. Woo. All powerful magic."  
  
"Woo, big word. Manifest. And you kiss aforementioned mother with that mouth?"  
  
"Woo-hoo, aforementioned. You're such a sage."  
  
"Woo, you're half of one."  
  
"Woo."  
  
"Woooo!"  
  
"Woo-wa woo-wa, will you both kindly please stop it? We're here, anyway. This is the forge!" She stood in front of a crusty, blacked door plugged with rivets and trembling as something with the muscle capacity of an elephant paraded and paced beyond.  
  
Elaine flattened an ear to the unsteady surface and recoiled instantly.  
  
"That guy could use with some soap for his mouth, huh?" Zelda said quizzically.  
  
"No… that door's piping hot! Practically melted my ear tips off. Through, yes, I know I'd get a telling off for ever using any of that guy's vocabulary. He doesn't seem too happy."  
  
Zelda nodded her head slowly and tiredly through the air, which, Posie now noticed, was thickened by heat. A great salty ball of sweat dripped off one of her protruding, caddy-whompus bangs and stung into her eye. She lifted a tiny fist, blinked, and rubbed the irritant from the sea-sky corona. Smoke now seemed to be gushing from the unblocked spaces beyond the door. And more rabidly did the blacksmith swear, though he did seem to be making an effort to keep the hexes limited to ancient Hylean.  
  
"Yyturi! Gliorion! Goddesses blast! Metal! Where is the gliorion metal? Yyturi! Can't do this commission without a hunk of gliorion metal! A gliorion blacksmith can't do anything without gliorion metal! And even with the metal… these proportions are insane. He's asking me for a butter-knife with a cross hilt! A yyturi cross hilt! Butter-knife! Yyturi, how does he expect me to do this? My hands are made for crafting halberds, katana, and broadswords, not this fiduss!"  
  
Zelda's face seemed to be melting into a frown under the pressure of the fire. "I warned you his mouth was foul. Don't ask me to translate that, you know. Another thing—his temper is as hot as his fires. Sounds like he's getting a bit frustrated with his latest project. Stay here, girls. I'll go an see what's bothering him."  
  
A blast of misty steam and blackened smoke issued forth from the crack as the Princess carefully place her hands upon the searing door handle and inched the metal blockade open. Magically magnified without the thick wall between the thundering shouts and the receiving ears, the blacksmith's shrieks were even louder, and oddly shrill, come to think of it, for the barrel-chested man who was just barely visible through the crack made by the door ajar.  
  
"FIDUSS!" The smithy had spied Zelda's face leaning into the glowing inferno he had surrounded himself in, all lights extinguished and windows nonexistent, but coals humming fiercely with fire. "The last thing I need!" His sooty hand clutched a blue scroll of parchment, etched in chalk, which he threw madly at the ground. It opened slightly, bounced, and rolled beneath the firing chamber, forgotten clamps sticking out of its small opening and getting ready to roast the next lump of iron he was sent. Or was waiting to be sent, apparently.  
  
Zelda tried to smile innocently, but ended up looking very false and almost scheming. She brought up her right hand beside her head and waved in a very timid manner. Sweat, both from nervousness and the temperature inside the shop, rained from her forehead. "Uh, hi," she coughed. Even when she stood at full and not a lean, the smith was taller than her by several heads, not counting his terrific ruddy beard, tangled and dusted, that hung down half the length of his torso. He was nearly bald, but the crown of hair that he had left was the same auburn-red color as his beard. His eyes were fierce and black. They glimmered even in the smoky darkness, like two deep oil pits drilled beneath his tightly-knit brows covered in their entirety by thick caterpillar bristles.  
  
"What do you want now? Not to be rude, Your Majesty, but unfortunately I've quite recently been saddled by a project not only frustrating and nearly impossible for a man with hands like these," at which he held up callused palms for emphasis, "but also difficult until this client, who will pay off in both favors and cash, comes back with a suitable piece of metal!"  
  
"Ah, yes, well, I see," said Zelda, who in truth, metaphorically in mind and literally in the clouded pitch-black room, didn't. "How long ago did you send this, err, client of yours off for a block? The castle's big, you know, and the stockpiles are down in the basement, which in turn is nearly impossible to get to unless you know how to turn the doors." By this she meant knowing how to make them go to one place instead of the other.  
  
"Over half an hour ago, and he knows his way around," the smith replied. He fiddled with one of the buttons in the collar of his tartan flannel shirt. "I'm just about gliorion ready to go down there at get the yyturi metal myself." He was falling into swearing again. "Unless of course Her Majesty would like to go and get it." He said this quite obviously sarcastically.  
  
Like her usual self, however, Zelda did not get it. "Oh! Well then, if you insist!" And before the smith could protest, she had swooped up on Posie and Elaine and carted them off to go find a hunk of metal.  
  
  
  
***************************  
  
Link admitted to being a bit dumbfounded when he returned to the rotunda, lugging a great dull block of smelted but so far useless iron, to see a large patch of dirt on the floor, a few scattered playing cards, a disturbed tapestry and the King milling about and humming like he was standing in line for a play in the Hyrulean ballet. When Link inquired, the king said that Zelda had met a pair of charming young girls hiding behind the tapestry minutes before and had taken them off to the Forge. The King then rebelled with a quiz of his own, asking Link why he had cradled in his arms a solid lump of gray material. Link had shaken his head and groaned, inwardly shouting at himself for not checking back after receiving the orders from the smith to make sure Posie and Elaine would be willing to wait any longer. And it was just his luck Zelda had gotten to them first, not known who they were and been so taken with them that she started to tote them about without any further ado. Well, if they had gone to the forge, then chances already were that his little surprise had been spoiled. If they were still there and Drenenn the blacksmith had said nothing, then they'd start asking questions of him the moment he returned with the metal. Oh, the cold hand he had been dealt—literally; he could almost feel the frostbite setting in to his fingers from the near-frozen metallic surface.  
  
As it turned out, however, he'd been fairly lucky. Dren, as he was fondly known, informed Link that Zelda had already left, and though he had not laid eyes on either child even Zelda was not liable to leave them behind. He had sent them off on the same task, which he had assumed Link was failing at, but only Zelda knew what they were after and none had any idea why they were after it. Things could work out after all. Link tried to leave, but a gigantic hand held him back, Dren snarling about the proportions of the tool he was to craft and asking to have the warrior with him every step of the way so he could be assured of giving the proper result.  
  
Zelda and company had no such luck. While Dren pounded and wielded away, they had no idea that his client had returned and spent the better part of the morning weaving about passages and halls, their progress greatly hindered by Posie, whom was now refusing to walk another step every fifteen minutes or so. Elaine was forced to drag her until she complied to moving. This was a slow, tedious process that made sure it took the strange band thrice the time it had taken Link to get to where they were going and back. By the time they returned to the forge, the door was firmly blasted shut by heat and key, and a sign hastily scrawled in whirling, circular font, stood frontwise: "Do Not Enter. Work In Progress."  
  
"How about that!" exclaimed Zelda as she knelt and set the block of iron in front of the door with a rather befuddled air. "I suppose, what with the time that took, that person came back and has had poor Dren working like a dog to follow through. He's probably been at it for, oh, two hours now! Just listen!"  
  
They did. A cold, steely ringing jolted the silent hall; the weight of a hot, still-sparking blade as it groaned beneath the weight of the smithy's hammer. Elaine thought it was ugly and screeching. But to Posie, the sound seemed to beckon her, like the ringing of chimes in the night, just how a lighthouse would send out its light, a beacon down the tried and true path. The sound waves were so thick she cloud practically taste them wavering through the air, and she blinked slowly and licked her lips at the noise. Human beings, it is said, can sense, even without seeing them, what sort of person another is going to be, whether they'll be friendly or cruel or even slightly shallow. And her "friend" sense was clicking alert signals at her like mad. Someone—or something—was in that room beside the blacksmith, and whatever the other was, it held the beginnings of a beautiful friendship. The only task was in finding out what it was.  
  
"Good. But a bit flatter: there, that's the ticket!"  
  
The voice hit her with a lightning pitch. Link? Could her father have been what she had sensed all along? No, his aura was different, cooler and more familiar, livid but more refined and smooth. This other was frantic, maniacal, darting about like a mouse in a maze, looking for an exit, a guardian angel… it needed a constant stream of attention, a steady diet of action, a quick one-two sort of pace surrounded it… and there was a steam hiss, and the aura was quieted. No! It rang again, louder this time, and it screamed as the mallet pounded the blade it was forming. Quicker taps but nearly identical force, it seemed. A hastier, more concentrated bounce, to flatten the end. Was her heart pounding in time? Blast her Blade blood for getting her so excited. She at least hoped to see what sort of weapon came out of the smith's work in the end.  
  
Link continued to babble on instructions to Dren as he crafted, but all that came to Posie was the ringing of metal. There was a force in there she felt drawn to. But what?  
  
The orchestra of iron sounds seemed to continue on for an eternity, though it was really only around fifteen minutes more. Then there were several exhausted sighs and the snapping closed of a hinged box, then mild and breathless laughter on both parts.  
  
"I'm never doing that again."  
  
"I'm never asking you to do it again. Again meaning as long as this thing lasts for, of course."  
  
You could almost feel Dren smiling from fifteen feet away and behind a closed door. The man had a truly warming smile. "Always a pleasure, you know. Despite what I might say working. Be sure to give me the full report on its performance when you get back!"  
  
"Naturally, old chum. You've done me a real favor, you know. You'll be getting a nice sum for this one, mark my words!" And the door swung open and out strode Link, head turned and right arm waving behind him, left with a large, velvet-coated box tucked beneath it. He stumbled over the block of iron set in front of the door, nearly lost his footing and tripped, and looked up from his recovery to stare Zelda in the face.  
  
"Well! This is a pleasant surprise. Zelda Harkinan, Princess of Hyrule, and self-proclaimed fairest in the land. What on earth would you happen to be doing in front of the forge, ehh?" he said accusingly.  
  
Zelda's reaction: Unsurprised. What else could she have expected from him? He didn't seem to think any sort of warfare unrelated to magic interested her. Well, wouldn't she be one-up on him when he met her new friends! "Nothing, Link, just waiting. Waiting to go inside. We DID, after all, bring a piece of metal just like you. Seems to be the toll around here, does it not?" Waiting for Link's feedback on the "We" comment… waiting… waiting…  
  
And it looks like she'd be waiting awhile. Link didn't even seem to notice, in fact, that she'd used the word. "So I heard. Well, it was for naught, I'm afraid." He bit is lip, hunting for a new lead, then, happened to gaze down. "Hello, girls. I suspect you got a mite more interesting tour from Zelda than you would've had from me."  
  
Zelda's jaw dropped. Posie crept out from behind her vacuous skirt. "Hi, Daddy," she said, certainly more subdued than usual. Her words practically clicked with a glugging sound as they meekly marched from her voice box. "Ahh… Me and Elaine, w-w-we…"  
  
Well, maybe Zelda had been right about Posie after all. So this was the infamous daughter of Link! Not at all what she'd expected! How gentle and cute she'd been when they first met, so utterly deceiving… but how totally apparent now, in those surly fits she'd had. Yet she hadn't seemed to know what she was saying, as she spoke those hackneyed words… but it could mean that Link wasn't quite as obnoxious as he sometimes seemed. Kudos to him for that!  
  
"No worry… I know everything, and I can't say I blame you. Partially my fault. But I've got the second and third parts of your surprises right here. The second one is mainly for Posie, but the third… well, you'll see." He turned his head to the right, to stare out a window with a mischievous smirk.  
  
Elaine looked unsatisfied, made a sullen face, and asked the question Link couldn't have possibly hoped to avoid. "What's in the box?"  
  
"Oh, this!" Link maneuvered the box from underneath his arm to poised on his lower arms. His palms cupped about brass latches. It was wooden and covered in crimson-violet velvet, at was about at big as the length from the tip of Link's middle finger to his elbow. "Ah, now I can't tell you that just yet. We must head to lunch first. After we bon appetite, then I'll show you. You can wait. After all, isn't food the number one priority?"  
  
Zelda was going to protest, but thought the better of it. She wanted to say that the scale of priorities only went for the things you were most desperately in need of, but who would listen to Sigmund Freud psychobabble from a princess who though a five-year-old was attracted to knights in shining armor?  
  
  
  
  
  
Lunch was a sparse affair. Despite the many goods, pastries, and sandwiches provided by the excellent royal cook Frelii, Posie and Elaine were much too overcome with excitement to be very hungry. Posie could usually stomach a typical-sized blueberry Danish despite the fact one was as big around than her head, but only managed a fourth of one then and there, plus a small(thought it would be fair-sized to her) glass of root beer. Elaine picked up a sandwich, realized it was peanut butter and put it back, and opted for a baked chicken breast. She, too, desisted finishing. She only took a few small sips of her iced tea.  
  
"No appetite today, girls?" inquired Link has he stuffed several leaves of lettuce from his Caesar salad into his mouth. "You look so anxious. I thought you loved Danishes, Posie. And Elaine, you haven't touched your chicken in at least seven minutes and you totally rejected that sandwich—or was it peanut butter?" at which Elaine nodded. "Well, suppose if I were your age I'd be anxious too. I am, come to think of it. Anxious—not you age." He only invoked a couple of mild giggles.  
  
He sighed into his salad. "Well, I give up, then. You want to see the box? The second part of the surprise? If it'll take care of the density of the air clouding your usual charisma, I'm for it. Err, Posie, would you mind coming over here for a moment?"  
  
Posie enthusiastically shot up from her seat like a rocket, pressure and stress spring-loading her legs to a point where they were almost made tightly-wound rubber bands. "Yes!" She slid down from the makeshift booster, down the chair, and onto the floor before she approached Link. "Ready!" She practically saluted him.  
  
"Alright." Link reached behind his chair and withdrew the box. "All yours, kid. But—woah woah woah! Not just yet, hot stuff! Gotta bone to pick with you first. Are you listening, Posie?"  
  
Posie nodded, indicating she was, and then yawned—not much reassurance. Hungrily she eyed the little treasure chest resting between Link's palms. She thought she could hear a muffled pining coming from somewhere. And had the box just jumped on its own accord?  
  
"Now, Posie Cassandra Blade…"  
  
Uh-oh. The full name. Not a particularly comforting sign. What was to follow was going to be some sort of tirade on, most likely, why she was getting whatever it was and maybe even what it was, with a long series of instructions and a good deal of beating about the bush.  
  
"Now, Posie, you're a good kid, and… you've never really let me down or anything… always done almost exactly as your mother and I have said, not broken too many rules, or caused a great deal of trouble. You've always been kind and willful, if not to say a bit stubborn at times, and never been spoiled and whiny like most other celebrity's kids. I know you would never really hurt anybody."  
  
Yep. There was the evasion of the point, right there. Next came more of it, along with some sort of moral lecture on what she'd done to deserve this.  
  
"I know it's not your birthday or anything," Link continued, "and in all honesty… I hadn't planed on getting this for you until you were older. But… I feel you're ready and can be trusted with this. I've always had tremendous faith in you. Besides, you'll need it. No, I feel there couldn't be a more ripe and ready time for you to receive this, Posie. Provided you do as you're told with it."  
  
Check two. Now the words of caution. What for? Who knew until the box was opened?  
  
"I'm only going to tell you this once, Posie, and if I catch you disobeying even once that'll be the end of it. You must promise me, promise me that you will only ever use the enclosed in self-defense, and only if there is no other way out. Is this getting into you, Posie? Otherwise, find me instantly or just run. Just having these isn't going to make you invincible, you know, but it'll help give you a little bit of edge you wouldn't have empty-handed. So better not go looking for trouble. And don't expect me to just go letting you at these everyday—only for practice, or whenever else you may have need. Do you understand, Posie Cassandra Blade?"  
  
Posie tried to nod as sophisticatedly as possible, but ended up with an "it took you long enough" expression on her face. Link did wince. Subtly. Barely. But it was there. He was a little more reluctant in holding out the box. Posie was maybe just a tad more cautious as she opened the lid.  
  
Both, however, were filled with awe as the brilliant amber jewel set in the miniature hilt winked at the three of them, the great center of a stylized, purple, eight-petaled flower whose leaves constructed the horizontal of the cross. Or blossom. Leather strands wrapped around the grip on the hilt, and the small sphere at the bottom was painted yellow with a tealy blue band. The blade itself was roughly six inches long and silver, a knife in comparison with other swords but just the right size for a person only fifteen inches tall. Similarly manufactured was a shield embossed with a motifed flower of the same type, along with a pair of gauntlets and a bow, quiver of arrows included with their shafts crafted of willow. Drenenn hadn't been the only busy one.  
  
The instant Posie's northern paw secured around the leather bands wrapped around the grip, hand wreathed in a heavy brown glove, was when the odd little girl stopped being a nobody and became a warrior. 


	6. BASH! CRASH! SMASH! (The Adventure Begin...

(Author's Note: GRRRRRRRRR! I went back and reformed some of the gunk in the earlier chapters because, well, it was a mess and it left a couple of holes. Mostly I fixed spelling errors. And, errm, I'm embarrassed to ask this, but... does anyone remember which of the Twinrova sisters is Koume and which is Kotake? Sad I'm asking, isn't it?)  
  
Spinning Slash, Chapter 6: BASH! CRASH! SMASH! (The Adventure Begins)  
  
Saria had been thoroughly up-in-arms when Link had told her they were leaving the next morning, and even more livid when he told her about the sword. It had been a hasty scramble to grab his mirror shield(lucky for him they were discussing in the storage room where he kept all of his old gear) to avoid the issuing blasts of snapping green lightning. He tried his best to look worried and very nervous about the whole ordeal in order to satisfy her, thought it wasn't working. He kept breaking out in an overconfident grin and getting smug glimmers in his eyes when he thought she's wasn't looking, only to turn around and ask her scowl, "How long have you been there?" Then it was back to ducking behind the shiny polished piece of iron. Elaine, spending the night over, had known Posie long enough to be used to her parents' squabbles. She didn't exactly favor them like that, but neither did she wholeheartedly favor the way they were when they didn't fight, rather gushy if truth be told. Neutral moments. Rare, but to be savored.  
  
Eventually though the air stopped searing every minute or two with electricity and the two came to a common agreement. Link had already promised that he'd bring his ocarina with him, and that he'd use it to return if things got a little too hot to handle. Now he was promising to regularly contact Saria via communication magic, as well as several other things. Some were very specific, like ".And TRY to get to a village every four days or so to restock, I think Parapa is on the way, if you take the route leading to the old castle over that way.," while others were a bit more open-ended, like, "Avoid standing under a cliff for very long!" One of the things she said was downright a threat, of sorts: ".And if you let ANYTHING happen to our baby."  
  
Posie cringed. She hated it when her parents called her that, despite the taunt she had shoved in Tony's face the week before. She may have looked a little like one, but she most certainly was NOT one. She then went outside with Elaine, who, before they had come inside to eavesdrop at the first whirring of thunder, had been watching her perform fancy jabs and slashes on a bag of straw. Saria caught the two of them out the window and abruptly stopped for a moment. She considered the sword to be the all-out worst part of Link's whole plan, but silently admitted to herself that Posie's skills were, as of late, looking purely divine. She'd be as good as if not better than her father when she grew up. She screwed her face into an uncomfortable vortex and went back to screaming.  
  
She seemed to feel bad about her temper tantrum when it was all over and in a form of apology fixed up a splendid dinner consisting of all Link and Posie's favorites as well as Elaine's, and didn't even feel the least bit guilty when the slightly lanky young brunette scarfed several peanut-butter-with-chocolate-frosting cookies when she "accidentally" wasn't looking. One might as well indulge one's self before fleeing civilization for what looked to be a good two-week trip. She then found Posie tugging at the hem of her skirt, asking for a third helping of the spicy stew that would later be hailed as "an edible excuse for a four-alarm fire, but tasty, true," by one of those friends of Link's who he'd never thought he'd have, but somehow did. Everyone praised her excellent cooking(which was no surprise, seeing as even the Head of the Royal Kitchen considered her the best in Hyrule) and soon the stew was nonexistent, the breads were mere crumbs, the pasta was hasta la vista and the desserts were certainly gone. Full and sleepy, everyone turned in early to prepare for the next day, save Saria who sat pondering on the edge of the bed as she looked into Link's sleepy face.  
  
My love. she found herself gently tousling his thick, but soft, hair. For the first time in five years, we will be apart for so very long. and this time, you also separate me from my one other true love, little Posie. She had been but a newborn last time you left. but now she will not be here to keep me thinking of other things. She peered delicately into his face. You are truly an angelic soul, Link, even though it is not what you appear to be. Some find you so unconventional, with your "no one can be sacrificed" attitude, but... isn't the soul of a single person worth just as much as the soul of the whole? Sages tend to think very loudly, and Link winced in his sleep. Something in his dream had no doubt changed to reflect her mind, especially with her hand on his forehead.  
  
Link. if you are listening somewhere, off in that deep, dark pit of the subconscious, please listen to me. I know sometimes I act like. well, I act like I'm some sort of etiquette teacher trying to keep you in line, or a lion tamer attempting to make you tame, but. I really do love you, Link, with all my heart and soul I do! Your little ticks have always struck a nerve or two, but it's where your heart lies that counts, which is why I think this now: If home is where the heart is, then I will never truly feel like I am where I belong here until you have returned, for my heart is always with you. Get back quickly. Please.  
  
A smile, from a swamp which no human being has ever trodden when they have been in control of their minds, seemed to confirm her thoughts. Not wanting to dwell on her breaking felicity any longer, she climbed into bed and slept in horrible fits, waking up and falling back asleep in jerks that once even found her on the floor. Uncomfortable. Yet another found her missing the sensation in her hand, only to find somehow Link had grasped her wrist and was cutting off the circulation. Sweet of him, even in sleep, but still not a pleasant sensation. She wrenched his fingers off in a way she hoped was at least a bit shameful of herself, then turned over and saw on the clock that it was five thirty in the morning. It seemed pointless to try and get back to sleep, but it still seemed too early to get up. Her busybody logic prevailed. Soon she was up and dressed in her normal long- sleeved green shirt, ankle-length green skirt, and of course green medallion on a gold chain, preparing several draughts of various potions for Link to be equipped with on his trip. A bit of sun-on-the-valley infusion in case of colds, dragonmoney poultices for helping wounds heal, and Goddess-eyes antidotes in case of poisoning. The warm, sickeningly sweet smell of her herbal workshop drifted all down the hallway.  
  
Link, Posie, and Elaine now stood, hair still disheveled from the night and pouchy eyes half-closed, in the fastly bluing light before Kakariko Village, mostly empty as the Kakarikions either slept in or made pilgrimage to the Temple of Time in the nearby Castle Town for the Sunday morning service. Link rarely attended, feeling like he'd had one too many encounters with the power of the Triforce already, but he almost always said some sort of small prayer to himself before doing anything most Sundays. Today it had been a traveler's prayer, before the rather short but deeply poignant parting ceremony Saria had shown them. She was almost in a state of mourning as she passed between each of the three with her blessings and wishes. She had come to know Elaine almost as well as Posie, and gave the girl a nod and a hug for her troubles. She wished her Goddesspeed and maneuvered over to Posie. For her daughter she sobbed a little and embraced her intensely, kissing her on the cheek and telling her, through the tears that clogged her speech, to "Listen to your father. keep tabs on Elaine. be good and stay out of trouble. and. have fun, I guess."  
  
Saria and Link exchanged no words. Instead, they pensively stared into each other's eyes for a moment before they flung their arms around each other's necks and kissed intimately, clasping each other for at least a minute before excruciatingly pulling away. Then she whimpered a small "I love you" in his ear before they departed, leaving her to begin her full wails and sobs at the pain of letting them go.  
  
There is something about being separated from someone vastly important to you that makes you terribly alert, even in your grim mood. Indeed, only Link seemed fully awake among the curious trio. In his agitation, his right temple felt hot and itchy, and he raised an arm to scratch it just in time to sense what felt like a small winged ember graze past his scalp. He had a sneaking suspicion that he had a stowaway on board his gear, but he didn't want to make any sort of sudden move just yet. Better to figure out first which tagalong they'd picked up as they'd left. Atahl? Not likely. They'd already know by now if the sarcastic male fairy was with them-he was horrible at keeping silent. He was quite clumsy for a fay, even one who was ten-thousand, eight-hundred and seventy-two years old. Spryte? No, she was a castle fairy. She'd have to have been following them since they'd left Hyrule Castle the previous day. Tatl or Tael? Those two were always up to no good, and were also masters of stealth. They were rarely seen even on the unusual occasions they came to the house. But, then again, last he'd heard of them they were putting their (semi)knowledge of Hyrule's bestiary to good use guarding the Forest Temple, so, scratch them off the list. No, the only fairy who lived at the house, was quiet enough to follow, and with enough motivation to do so was Navi. She'd given Link no end of trouble since he'd discovered her accidentally sewn into the rim of his hat, a mistake which he still couldn't understand how he'd made. Well, he could play at that game too. Navi didn't have to know that he'd caught on.  
  
Forget Navi for the moment, though. He had other matters to attend to. He had chosen Kakariko as their starting place for a number of reasons: One, scaling Death Mountain, despite the danger, would shave considerable time off their junket. Two, even though Saria had been generous with her supply of potions, he admittedly didn't have a clue as to how to use a single one and wanted to stop by the Potion Shop, to snare a couple of more familiar remedies and to get instruction from Tagan, the shop owner, as to what to do with his wife's confounding concoctions. And thirdly, he had a last-ditch effort idea that might get them out of this whole perilous journey once and for all.  
  
The night before, Link had secretly gotten up in the middle of the night(though plannedly, unlike Saria) and made out a few letters he thought might help him put a premature end to a rather risky plot. He wasn't too sure about how things would work out with his first letter, as it was addressed to a ghost who lived inside the volcano. Naturally, he was having it delivered to him by hand-or rather talon, bless that Kaepora Gaebora-but just to make sure, he wanted to pop in and see if he could get the scoop face to face just in case. The letter was rather blunt anyway, and was a bit open ended:  
  
Dear Dad,  
  
Hi, it's me, Link. Things are going fine for me, how are you? I'm not too sure if you're going to get this letter, because I've never tried delivering to a ghost before. Anyway, I was wondering if you could tell me just exactly how the family technique-you know, the spinning slash-is supposed to work. I might be speaking with you in person soon, so don't worry about writing back for a week or so. Talk to Kaepora.  
  
Your son, Link  
  
At least Link knew where to tell Kaepora to look, but chances were perhaps even riskier on the second note. Although he could tell the owl who to seek, he could not tell him where to find. He happened to be dealing with a very jumpy target in this scenario. The receiver in question lived with Link's uncle, who liked to move all over the place in Hyrule and was, at least, hard to find even when you needed her. If only their grandmother hadn't died! Then she'd still be living in that wonderful quiet seaside town. Where their mother had lived before meeting their father. Link went into a whit more detail for this particular letter:  
  
Ari,  
  
This is Link. I haven't talked to you in ages. How is everything going with Uncle? Where has he got you now? I hope wherever it is, you're comfortable there. I'm afraid I have a few questions for you. Have you ever used a sword? I mean, with Uncle being in the army and all, I think you'd have access, but I'm asking anyway. Have you ever tried anything fancy with one? I think I've told you about the family trick, the one where you can make a sword turn almost into a magic wand of energy, haven't I? You've seen me use it. You should be able to perform it, if you try. Borrow Uncle's sword and go outside, and try to focus your inner magic on the sword. See if anything happens. I'm sorry if I'm asking the impossible-but I sincerely hope I'm not, because if you can do it, then so, theoretically, should Posie-you remember your niece, don't you? Sorry to be bugging you, sis, but it's important. Have Kaepora help you reply.  
  
Big brother, Link  
  
PS-There's always Uncle to ask. According to him, the slash used to belong to all Hyleans, but only the Blades continued the tradition, which isn't what Dad told me but it's as good a story as any.  
  
One of Link's theories as to possible reasons why Posie couldn't perform the slash was that she was female. But he didn't think that the Goddesses, of all divine beings, would have been sexist when they blessed the first Blade with his power, so he decided to test his sister Arril. Funny, he thought, if she'd known how to perform the slash when that bird had swooped down on her she might not have been kidnapped. But then again, that girl was full of surprises, the first of them being her mere existence. It had something to do with ghosts being able to come back to life on Halloween and his mother having been pregnant when she died. Magic was most confusing at times.  
  
So after he had seen the giant brown owl out and away from the window, he yawned and turned back to bed. He stole a quick glance at Saria-her hair was dishelved, her skin sallow and blotchy, and her eyes were reminiscent of a raccoon's. But it was in these moments, he thought, that she was even more beautiful than ever-for then was when you had to look into her heart to see her beauty, and her heart held reams and reams more than skin could carry. She couldn't have been having a good night. He swore she had been talking to him in his dreams, telling him how much she really loved him. Right back at ya, then, he thought, and held her wrist as he closed his eyes and drifted off once again.  
  
Normally Kaepora could be seen winging his way lazily over Kakariko in the mornings, but not this morning for he was busy with his deliveries. Dropping a letter into the volcano was easy enough, but finding Link's sister wasn't. He was scanning an area of Hyrule known as the Charred Forest for her at this particular time. All that Posie could see anyway were the toes of her boots and the grass beneath them and she hung her head, half asleep. Elaine was pouchy-faced and her mood was sour, and she was constantly grumbling about "not getting to have any breakfast."  
  
Link was in a half-good mood, though. Now that the initial wrench of leaving Saria behind had passed, the contagious atmosphere of adventure had finally gotten to him and he certainly looked more alive than he had the day before. He had a big heavy pack stuffed with supplies on his back, and his fingers were wrapped around the shoulder straps as he inhaled deeply. "Take a whiff of this fresh morning air, girls. Doesn't it make you feel invigorated?"  
  
"I smell a cow," mumbled Elaine.  
  
Link wrinkled his nose as his nostrils probed a little deeper into the breeze, but brushed it away as he turned to look down on Posie. "Well, I'm sure you understand, don't you, Pose? The spirit of the hunt! You're a Blade; you feel it, don't you?"  
  
"No, and I can't feel my feet, either. I wanna go back to bed!"  
  
"No can do, kid. You've gotta start early if you're gonna make good time. We have to climb Death Mountain, and that's gonna take us all morning not including the time we spend visiting your uncle."  
  
"My uncle?" Posie asked sleepily. "I thought you just had your one sister, Auntie Arril." She was noticeably not looking up in Link's face, but into his calf. She looked about ready to fall into it.  
  
"Well, not your biological uncle, no, but we're Sworn Brothers as far as he's concerned. Which is as close as you get! Don't worry. His size may be a bit daunting to you-which makes two of us-but really, all that extra bulk is all heart. Gorons are nice folk, you know?"  
  
"Woah. Your uncle's a Goron. Now I've heard everything," said Elaine listlessly and without emotion.  
  
"Awwww, don't be so put off, girls! Look, we've got to head off to the potion shop, and there's a million and one interesting and mysterious and captivating things there that'll catch your eyes and snag your senses and'll have you up faster than you can say 'bottled fairy.' And if that doesn't do the trick, the somewhat overpowering scent of herbs will."  
  
No laughs, unlike he'd expected.  
  
"Oh, c'mon, gals! Up and at 'em! Forget how tired you are right now and let the essence of excitement fill your bones! Sing with me! Hyrule, o'er the mist, lie there you cloaked, in won'drous mystery, lest deep within thy soul, magic be thy true goal, then there you be, rising straight out-the-sea! Hey!"  
  
Posie burbled a few notes that might have been the starting riff in Hyrule's National Anthem, but for the most part they were incomprehensible.  
  
"Hey, I'm not gonna make a fool outta myself if you girls won't join in. Come on, singing will get air in your lungs and help you wake! And what better song for a grand adventure than the Anthem? Hyrule."  
  
Posie seemed distraught with her father in a rare moment. "I don't know this man," she leaned over and whispered in the haggard Elaine's ear, and she nodded somberly and without energy.  
  
A dusty-looking man hauling a pair of overflowing water buckets on his broad shoulders strutted past, and Link cheerfully called out, "Hello there! Good to see that I'm not the only one around here who believes in getting up at dawn!"  
  
The man with wavy red hair and an inward-curving nose paused in his step and turned with inquiring gray eyes. "Oh, g'morning there! If it isn't Link and young wards Posie and Elaine!"  
  
"Yes, just off on a little journey, nothing special!" Link called back. "But praytell, my good man, how did you know their names?"  
  
"Girlfriend's the schoolteacher," he replied as he set down his pails. "Been giving me tabs on Posie and Elaine since day one. I'm a teacher too, you know; first grade. Telling me which of their antagonists to keep an eye on next year and which ones only pick on 'em cuz they're afraid of being bullied themselves. Relayed the whole dramatic scene of last Friday to me in all the gory detail. I'll say, didn't surprise me too much. Kid who looks like, dresses like, and acts like, every once in a while even, you has gotta be your kid. You know?"  
  
Link, however, had Hookshot into a previous statement and missed everything below it as he rappelled of the paragraph. "Bullies? Picked on? Woahwoahwoah waitaminute!" He squinted his eyes as he lowered his head, brandishing his palms. "Since when? Posie never told me about any bullies. Or being teased. What's this about, kid?" He looked down his side into an empty tussock of grass.  
  
"Kid?" His chin clicked up a level. "Elaine?"  
  
"Bwa ha ha ha!" Pejin chortled as he hoisted the pole on to his back once more. "Kids these days. Can't stand still, can they? Made a remarkable recovery from their comatose state as soon as I mentioned the way they get harassed, bless their little souls. Didn't actually see 'em sprint, though. Oh well. The grass is dewy, it holds footprints well! Shouldn't be too hard to find a pair of munchkins in a lazy little town like this on a Sunday morn!" And with those words he waddled off, just like that!  
  
"Aye no. this can't be good! Girls!" He put his hand to his mouth and called. "Posie! Elaine! Girls?"  
  
"Hey, quiet you! Can't a guy get a little shut-eye?" A man leaned from an upper-story window and glared at Link.  
  
"Sorry! You see two little girls run passed here?"  
  
"No, I WAS sleeping peacefully until YOU started shouting! Go away and keep it down, will you? There are people SLEEPING here!" An angry shutter slammed and roused a Cucco who hadn't been early enough to greet the sun, who in turn cawed fussily and pecked one of its dozing fellows. The angry hen started to squabble at the bird who had given her a rude awakening, and soon their wings were whipping and their feathers flew. The noise woke a dog somewhere at its master's feet, and it howled in distress. This woke the dog's keeper, who was now doing the barking at his animal. An interrupted cow mooed and kicked over a heavy metal milk pail, and soon all the village was braying and steaming and moaning along.  
  
"Not anymore," Link mumbled sheepishly before her stuck his hands inside his belt and shuffled slowly onward.  
  
He didn't have the foggiest on how he was going to find the girls in all the madness he'd stirred up, but at least he figured it wouldn't hurt him to shout after them anymore. Problem was, he probably wasn't going to be heard very well in that hullabaloo. Well, searching the deepest nooks and crannies was a specialty of his, so they couldn't hide for long. But why had they taken off like that when Pejin began to talk of happenings at their school? If they really were being made fun of, logic presented that they'd want it to stop as soon as possible, and Link would have certainly helped with that. Hadn't he told Posie just before school had begun that she could ask his help if other kids picked on her? Unless she was embarrassed. Or frightened that he might not accept this? Poor kid. So confused. Even she had her misconceptions about him. She still had the funny idea he was invincible, as it was. Well, then again, she'd never really seen him in action against anything but Deku Scrubs and Deku Baba, plus the occasional Stalchild. Soon that would change, though. Soon she'd watch him take on Dodongo, Gleeok, Moblin, Wolfos. and all the rest of the evil team. Bigger... badder. bloodier. He cringed as he stepped. Not the sort of thing you'd normally expose a little girl to, now was it? And she'd be stuck just on the Tektites. She'd leant her bow to Elaine, though, since the brunette didn't have any weapons of her own. Somehow, though, he knew she'd manage.  
  
BASH! CRASH! SMASH!  
  
Uh-oh.  
  
"I told you not to touch it!"  
  
"I didn't think it would hurt to just tap the glass!"  
  
"Tap the glass? You tried to grab it off the shelf!"  
  
"Stop raising such a stink, y'know? You said we could hide in here!"  
  
"I said you could stay here for a little while if you promised not to touch anything! Now look, it's knocking everything down!"  
  
The din above nearly bleached the voices into more white noise, but the extra zeal in Hylean ears just barely told Link of Elaine, as well as Tagan the potion-shop keeper, and some high-pitched giggling accompanied by glass shattering on a high-polished wooden floor. A telltale ploosh sounded like potion splashing out of a bottle on to the ground. The steamed stamping was the shopkeeper without a doubt, and a bit of frightened whining probably belonged to Posie. He heard as well a third, childish voice, very squeaky and almost inaudible. It reverberated like a little girl's might, but it was unfamiliar and very raucous: "Free! Free! Heehee! Take that, you meanie," and another tinkling of glass broke against his ears.  
  
"Gawdesses, what sort of fruit do we have here?" A pitched squawk of a voice clambered onto Link's shoulder and mused this.  
  
"Hullo, Navi, weren't expecting you," Link lied feebly and sarcastically as he sensed the miniscule being cloaked in a pulsing bluish- white glow out of the corner of his eye.  
  
"Sorry to burst in on the shindig, Mr. Hero, but you and your daughter are definitely the most disaster prone duo out there, and when you've got the other half of Posie's schoolbound gruesome twosome under your wing things aren't lookin' up. I came to make sure the younguns don't stray too far from your clutches and see that they get proper lecturing on the dangers of the various flora and fauna of Hyrule."  
  
Link answered without looking to his right, where Navi perched with her wings buzzing. As a fairy, and an old one at that(though as far as the Fairies were concerned, she was still somewhat young), she had a great knowledge of Hyrule and had been Link's first assistant in adventure. He owed much of his knowledge of his enemies to her, and though she had disappeared shortly after his first quest had been completed, he later found her stuck inside the rim of his hat. Rather than bother to ask how she had got there, he welcomed her again with open arms, only to regret it very quickly. Navi loved to boss people around, and though she tried to be polite about things, her constant prattle of "Hey! Look! Hey! Listen!" was enough to strike just about anyone's nerve. True, she was better than her younger sister Navu, who Link had thankfully only met once. Yes, she was CERTAINLY better than Tatl and Tael. But. there was a fine line. A VERY fine line.  
  
"You're telling me I can't teach my own kid about the evils of the world well enough?"  
  
"You'd make a worse case of it that Tatl, that's for sure."  
  
"So what was that whole thing about. fruits. anyway?" Link actually looked the tiny human frame as well in the eyes as he could now, though he had to squint to see Navi's body amidst her somewhat blinding glow that normally masked her body from view. Though those who didn't look hard enough could be lead to believe she didn't have one. But she did, and if she completely doused her catching aura, her features became completely visible. Her earthen-brown hair, flecked with sun-gold highlights, was done up in a bun with strands of spider silk. Her cheekbones were high and her eyes a watery blue, with a delicately bridged nose and similarly fragile- boned limbs. Her rosy skin was clad in wrappings of ever-green vines and maps of miniature ivy, though truth be told if she were a full-sized human these trappings might be considered risqué. Her feet were bare. Atahl, Saria's male fairy, had slightly better taste and always wore shoes and pants, though the pants had badly fraying edges and he didn't have a shirt.  
  
"Oh, I just hear a fairy by the potion center, that's all. Sounds like a really young one. Can't be more than five hundred years old. Young lady, and I use the term 'lady' loosely. Seems to be causing old Tagan a spot of trouble, and I daresay the children as well. Shall we, Link?"  
  
Navi launched in front of Link's face as she spoke, and when she finished Link nodded. "Let's find out why they ran and get our potion fix while we're at it. I need to ask him what to do with these blasted elixirs. all I know is red is for wounds, green is for magic, which only I'll really need to worry about, and the little satchels cure different sicknesses and poisons. I have no idea which is which though."  
  
"Aww, that's easy," said Navi and she pointed to Link's backpack. "The bluish tinted ones are for general venom and the yellow powder is for magic poison. The thick leaves in the green gel are for the eyes, you wash off the gooey stuff and chop up the stems for the sap. Excellent for soothing wind-stung vision. The little leaf rolls are another kind of healing agent, except you crumble those over cuts instead of eating them. And the-"  
  
A tremendous howl of shattering crystal and a wave of liquids gushed through the village and battled with every other noise until it had beaten them into submission and was the only wailing therein.  
  
"MY-SHELVES!"  
  
Link began to make haste without even bothering to interrupt Navi and tell her that he "had to fly," to coin an appropriate phrase.  
  
The floor of Tagan's Apothecary was a multichrome mess of sour- smelling tonics, strangely flickering cloudy essences that hovered purposelessly over the seething sea, scurrying bugs and flopping fish, and glinting shards of glass and spongy cork. A pure white light guffawed maniacally as it whizzed around in circles near the ceiling, blowing small raspberries and taunting, "Oooh! Who's bad now? Who's tight? Spell it baby! Ecks, Eye, Aye, Ell, Ecks, Eye, Aye, Ell." Sopping about below and looking about disdainfully were the long and red-haired Tagan, his blue vest splashed with a couple of substances that seemed to be chewing through his gold buttons, and mucking about on the floor below Posie and Elaine, their clothes tye-dyed in various brews and torn into shreds at the edges by the broken glass. The pandemonium had begun when their teacher's boyfriend had practically sung about their daily ribbing, and before they could be called in for interrogation they fled. They knocked on the door of the first public building they came to and asked if they could chill inside until the coast was clear, and the shopkeeper had approved, much to his dismay now. Elaine had been intrigued by a bottled fairy standing imprisoned in its prism prison on a lower shelf, and had attempted to reach up and bring it down. Instead she knocked over the bottle, breaking it and setting free the devilish fairy inside. Haughty and none too happy about being trapped, the fairy then efficiently proceeded to destroy everything in the shop. She had finally managed to dislodge the beam supporting all the shelves, causing the whole structure to simply collapse. This was the humongous smashing sound Link had heard a moment before.  
  
Link opened the door on the whole caddy-wompus situation just as the painfully bright young fairy blitzed out the open window, after turning to the building's innards, giving a small nod to Elaine, and cheering, "Thanks kid! My mistress will be so horrified to see me-what fun! But she'll be grateful anyway, I'll bet. Ever need help from Fairith or Xial, just holler!"  
  
"What on earth happened in here?! Looks like a couple of hippies melted down!"  
  
"Not quite, sir, just a little girl set free a. good Goddesses."  
  
Tagan was hastily and haphazardly trying to scrub his front of the acidic mixture as he answered; he looked up and saw Link standing their so that his heart skipped a beat. Link normally visited the shop of Tagan's brother Telun, so the younger of the two had had less experience with the celebrity. But, because Link was on his way up Death Mountain, he had stopped here for a change, much to the shopkeeper's surprise.  
  
"'Ello," Link said with a humble and hunched little wave. "I uh. came here to get a little potion advice, perhaps buy a few wares, but it seems my plans for the latter have, uh, shattered on the floor? Heh heh heh."  
  
Tagan went scarlet. Apparently he didn't find the humor being injected into the situation funny.  
  
"Well, I am certainly willing to help you, Sir Link, but. I'm afraid I have a few. small problems." He pointed down to Posie and Elaine.  
  
Link followed the natural arrow down to the floor. "Oh! There you are. Do you know what a riot I raised trying to find you two? Look at your clothes! Elaine, you're wearing a white dress! Potions stain! Your father is going to kill me when he sees that you've ruined your best outfit, you know? And Posie! Your best tunic! Tsk, tsk." He clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Honestly, I would have expected better from both of you. Clothes can be replaced, but if you'd run when we were out in the wilds! There are things out there that would find you the perfect breakfast treat! If you're going to behave like this all the way, we might as well turn back this instant." He made curt gestures with his arms and hands, indicating the door.  
  
"Ah. you know these children?"  
  
"Yeah I know 'em. Little one's mine, Elaine is her buddy. I'm showin' 'em the ropes of my business, but all they've learned so far is not to bolt like they did, I hope."  
  
Posie gulped.  
  
"Hmm. They seem awfully young, don't you think? Not like I'm telling you how to raise your children or anything such, but, if I were you I'd wait a good five years."  
  
Link made a satirical face. "Don't think I'd have the patience for that."  
  
"Don't have the patience! Listen to you. The way you handled those two you must be kidding. You were firm and you certainly showed them who's who, but in your shoes I would have complete blown up! You barely fizzled."  
  
"There's more than one kind of patience, Tagan. The kind that keeps your temper under control, and the kind that lets you wait. I'm completely lacking of the second."  
  
Fifteen minutes later Link waved goodbye to the merchant, his remaining hand coiled around his backpack strap and Posie and Elaine returned to impressions of the living dead. A little wangling with the guard at the gates barring normal citizens from the volcano, and they were making the winding hike up the fiery mountain, the cliffs and ditches sculpted from hardened lava eons in the past. Though Hyrule's clocks only wound back 520 years, historians and theologians alike seemed to agree it was much older than that. The Great Fairies, elderly avatars of the Goddesses themselves, so it was said, claimed to be at least a million each. Atahl, a one-time guardian to hundreds of Kokiri, had recently celebrated his 10,872nd birthday, and if the fairy race was created at the same time as Hyrule, then something was amiss in the tally of the years of Ebridane.  
  
Perhaps a bit of background history is in order here about Ebridane. Those who brought Hyrule to the world would have us believe the Three Golden Goddesses only created a land called Hyrule. But that is not true. In reality, they formed an entire continent dubbed Ebridane, which is located in the Indian Ocean and is slightly larger than Australia. Ah, but how come I've never seen it on a map, you say? Well, Ebridane is a very delicate land because it holds the only remnants of the precious force known as Magic. The ancient race of the Quentopi were adept in the use of this force, though it could not save them from being annihilated by a great meteor that fell from the sky into their society. Only their descendents; reptiles, birds and dragons exist today.  
  
Now because the Goddesses created this land to house all remaining magic, it was very important it stayed magically pure. So a mist surrounds it-an invisible mist, but one that keeps all those who don't believe in magic from seeing, smelling, hearing, feeling and even tasting the place. Of course, the Ebridani are one up on much of today's nonmagic culture, for they can see the rest of the world, and have envoys in nearly every country except a few small territories. They blend in almost perfectly, except for their elongated ears which they must either hide with their hair or have surgically changed, usually by the occasional outworldly doctor who, in all their medical knowledge, somehow has room for belief in magic and knows that Ebridane is there. They've borrowed what inventions they can-light bulbs, telephones, gear mechanics and radio to name a few- but magic and electricity counteract each other badly, so it is difficult to work these contraptions. Currently, most technology cold be found in Koholint Island, which had the annoying habit of disappearing due to the fact it was mostly the fabrication of a restless whale deity closely related to Lord Jabu-Jabu of the Zoras, and Fungi Isle, which rested on the very limits and had the distinction of having almost completely different fauna from the rest of Ebridane, full use of electricity, and citizens that actually did not bear pointed ears. Koholint housed a few of its more curious creatures-walking mushrooms, snapping plants, phosphorescent squid and flying fish, and caterpillar-cacti. But that was about it.  
  
And with "about its" on the mind, in the slowly(but not slowly enough) mounting sun, Posie and Elaine were getting rather fidgety as they trudged up the barren surface of stone, barely managing to struggle up to Link s the soles of their feet wore down and their rages warred up.  
  
"I'm melting! When are we gonna reach Goron City? I want something to eat!"  
  
"Soon enough, Posie, soon enough. We can have lunch as soon as we get there. Your mom was grateful enough to pack us plenty of food, and a good thing since Gorons eat rocks. Just keep trekking!" He looked over his shoulder to shout this at the girls, who were falling rather behind, and then turned back again to mutter at the road. Or as much of a road as there was-centuries of Gorons pounding down the slopes had worn down a fine, shiny path, but it was slick and slippery, and it was a long way down.  
  
"Posie." Elaine's lanky arms dragged near the ground as she was bent almost double, panting like a dog and mopping her scarlet-brown bangs from her chestnut eyes. "I can't take much more of this insanity! Why did I agree to do this?"  
  
"Umm. because you're my best friend and best friends always stick together?" Posie mumbled into the blank air, her expression granite. "Besides, you're not the one lugging an extra eight pounds of metal with you. I'm starting to think all this equipment is useless-after all, we've been up here for hours and we haven't seen a single."  
  
A leather thong swished, a long shaft of wood with a sharp metal tip whistled, and something squealed with a warbling, squeakish voice. Caught in mid-pounce from the cliffside, a four-legged, box-shaped insect, with one glowing red eye and a rusty, scaly exoskeleton, plummeted to the canyon floor and spasmed madly before it stilled with a sick crunch of its flailing limbs.  
  
"Tektite," mumbled Link, who could flare from a passive, loving gentleman to an aggressive, hardened warrior in less time than it took a nanosecond to wink. He concealed his bow behind his pack and walked up to the carcass of the spider-creature, where he hauled it from the gross corpse, covered in stick purple fluid. Posie and Elaine watched in disgust, fighting back the natural urge to cry out exactly what was on their minds: "Ewwwwwwwww!"  
  
He admired the arrow, twirling it around in his fingers like it was a rod of gold. "See what I mean about the things out here? And let that be a lesson to you both. That thing nearly jumped me. Tektites are one of the things out there that aren't quite smart enough to form intricate plans and ideas of good an evil for themselves, but have just that sliver of a mind enough to be swayed into doing the dirty work of whoever wants to exploit them. Mind, some choose our side-I met a guy once who kept one for a pet. But those that go bad go bad. You get it?"  
  
Posie's face was nearly the same shade as the cleaner parts of her tunic, but she nodded. Elaine was too busy massaging her stomach.  
  
"I always speak too soon," said the little blonde girl sickly as she stiffly began after her father again.  
  
"Please don't speak at all; then I get obliged to reply and I feel like if I open my mouth one more time, I'm gonna hurl-" -then she closed her face with two twisted pink zipper lips.  
  
"Maybe I don't have the stomach for this business," Posie mumbled.  
  
Elaine glared at her darkly.  
  
The single red specimen hadn't been the only Tektite to ambush them up the polished path. No less than four other of the creeping pseudo-arachnids hopped up-or rather, down-from the most peculiar places. One more tried the cliffside, two more were tucked inside wilting ferns that had sprouted up on small ledges, and the fourth somehow wedged itself into a tiny crevice even too small for Posie. Horrified, she gazed grimly transfixed as Link ran them all through with the same ugly mauve arrow, while Elaine's weakening constitution had taken all it could handle. She jerked her head away whenever Link drew his bowstring and quickly fixed her attention on the sky, lazily(and desperately) watching a pair of oddly disfigured birds glide and swoop above. She blinked as she thought she saw a dark oval shape plummet through the heavens, but in an instant it was gone, and there were only the birds again, one apparently squawking at the other. C'est la vi.  
  
Posie was so disconcerted that she ran smack-dab into a fair sized boulder straight in the middle of her path as she attempted to leave the repulsive cadaver of another felled Tektite behind her. Her "Oohk!" as she stumbled was enough to make Elaine and Link circle about behind them as she dizzily wove back, vision fuzzy, then shook her head to clear her line of site and set rite her swimming senses.  
  
The "boulder" she'd collided with was a curious one-it had the right texture to be sure, but it was a completely different color from the rest of the landscape. While the stone she stood upon was a strange gray- brown-black hybrid, this was the golden brown of a freshly baked pie. And though it looked rough from afar, she found, when she cautiously approached and put a hand up to the rounded side, that it felt soft, leathering, and. warm.  
  
A strange, deep rumbling gurgled from somewhere beneath the stone, and suddenly a pointed head capped in gray, with long, muscled lips and limpid blue eyes, vaulted up from it sleep and gave a sepulchral giggle. "Hey, that tickles! Stop it!"  
  
Posie was frozen by the creature's cerulean gaze for a moment, then she threw up her arms in front of her, bent back, and shrieked. She seemed reluctant to turn her back on the rock that had just come to life in front of her, but nevertheless she did so without hesitation and tripped and scrambled to get away as fast as she could.  
  
"Hey! Hey! Where you goin'?" The creature had limbs that almost seemed too skinny to support its weight, but it pulled its burlesque self to comically large feet and lumbered slowly after the vainly fleeing child and grabbed her by the back of her collar and spun her around, panting.  
  
"Get away from me!" Posie took a few steps backward, hit her heel on a pebble, and fell.  
  
"Well what did I do?" The miffed sandstone man put his lean hands on his portly hips, cocking his head to examine the pygmy girl and squinting his eyes as if trying to probe into her mind. "Geez, are all you humans born that small or are you just an exception?"  
  
The thick mucus sliding down her throat made it hard to catch a decent breath and reply. "E-e-exception."  
  
"Heh, figures. Mah uncle's the only other human I ever met, and he's only half as big as Dad! I'm named after my uncle, you know. He and I are both heroes, you know that too?"  
  
Posie rapidly shook her head. All she knew about Gorons was that they were huge and ate rocks, but she'd never actually seen one before. So naturally, she had no idea what she was looking at.  
  
"That figures too. Well, nice to meet you, Mr. Human. Or are you a Miss Human? Dang, I have no idea how to tell what gender you guys are." He scratched his head. "My dad would know though-he knows all about humans. Well, my name's Link. And yours would be.?"  
  
"L-L-Link? B-b-but that's my d-d-daddy's name."  
  
"Daddy? Wait a rock pickin' second. your name's Posie, isn't it? Isn't it?! Hey, I know who you are! You're my cousin, my Uncle Link's daughter. Aren't I right?"  
  
"Umm. your daddy is named Darunia, right? Then. I guess so. but. Daddy?"  
  
"Way ahead of you, sweetheart." Link was now fleetly striding down the treacherous slope, never once loosing his footing to the almost glasslike surface of the slim walkway. The Goron Link thunderously took several rumbling steps just to turn around, then took a deep breath and made a "gron" sound deep in his throat.  
  
"Hey Uncle Link, whatcha doing all the way up here? And why didja bring your kid? And. woah, who's that one? Wait, don't tell me. female, right?"  
  
Link pulled a squirrelly smile. "Um, yeah. You got it. Right. Hey, the trio of us were just heading up the volcano, and we were wondering if it'd be too much of a bother if we could, you know, stop by the city and all on our way. That fine?"  
  
"Sure; you know Dad lets just about anybody into the city these days. if they can make it up here, they're obviously good with the Royal Family, so they're alright, yes? Hmmm. but, you know."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Well, the other day a really freaky looking bunch- they might have been humans, but I'm not gonna count on it-stopped by here the other day demanding to search the city. They had huge eyes, wore funky purple cloaks, and not to mention those noses! They were all green, like frogs. Got into a fight with Dad when he wouldn't let 'em in-one of 'em flung some strange clear stuff at him that looked like a rock, but when I got up to touch it, it was REALLY cold and it. turned into something that looked like lava, but was see-through and stung to the touch. Eventually they left, though. Said they didn't find anything. And good riddance-I didn't like them one bit!"  
  
The "strange clear stuff" Goron Link spoke of sounded like ice, which explained why it puzzled him. There was none on the ever- blazing Death Mountain. But a froggish creature that threw ice? Perfectly senseless. And what would it want in Goron City? Apparently nothing, Link's namesake had said they hadn't found anything. but for some reason, he was strangely suspicious. those frog-things, whatever they were, could have been looking for something there was plenty of in the City, something they could take without anyone noticing. Like stone, or sand, or lava or ash. But what would they want with any of THOSE things? Stone was only useful for making tools, but you could get it anywhere, along with sand. Lava was too hot to move, especially for something specializing in ice. And unless you were a desperate soap maker, what on earth could you do with ash.?  
  
Link shook his head. No point in letting his mind wander, it could get lost. Besides, the young Goron was probably exaggerating-he could do that at times, though he really was a good kid at heart. "Well, thanks anyway, but we've really gotta be going now. See you soon, nephew Link. Posie? Elaine? Come along."  
  
"Hmmm. I'm a tad suspicious, Link."  
  
Navi buzzed in his ear again.  
  
"Suspicious? Suspicious of what?"  
  
"Well. a green thing with big eyes, a big nose, and that throws ice? Doesn't that sound just a bit shady to you?"  
  
"Whaaaat? You've lost me, Navi. Go bug the kids if you're so bent on teaching them about Hyrule, anyway."  
  
Navi sighed to herself at Link's thick-headedness, and fluttered back to where Posie and Elaine paced away from the waving Goron- Link.  
  
"Hey, what's with the Glowball?"  
  
"And that will be enough of that, miss Parkerstine, for I'll have you know that I, Navi, will be your guide throughout this little trip, and I will personally take the liberty of teaching the two of you when to look but not to touch, so you'd better listen or else you'll get digested!" The plucky little fay hovered inches in front of Elaine's face, though she was hardly still as she had to constantly skitter backwards so she didn't slam into a nose like a fly to the front of a carriage. Not far enough apparently, as Elaine's speedy hand whisked up to try and smack the tweedling speck out of the air.  
  
"I oughta clip your wings."  
  
"Hmmph! Such aggression, young lady! I ought to tell your father!"  
  
"Go ahead, tell 'im! Fifteen seconds of listening to that awful tilted voice of yours is enough to make anybody want to squash you!"  
  
"Aww, cut it out, both of you." Posie snarled first to the pinioned pyre and then to the choleric child, hand behind her back and threateningly on her blade's hilt. "'Lane, I've put up with Navi twenty- four seven times fifty-two times five, in case you haven't forgotten, and I haven't tried to kill her once. Threatened to maybe, but even so, daddy would kill me afterwards! She's a part of the family, after all. though to be honest, I much prefer Atahl."  
  
"That's because Atahl lets you get away with things you aren't supposed to, urchin," scolded Navi. "And even without his egging I'd bet you'd still be an awful pill. I don't know who causes more trouble, you or him!" She had bolted from Elaine's face to Posie's side, much to Posie's distaste. The two of them had always gotten on bitterly.  
  
"Need I remind you, Miss Perfection, that it was not he or I but you who tried to heal that Deku Scrub with some of Mommy's herbs and ended up getting it utterly stoned? As in, volcanic granite?"  
  
"Well ex-CUUUUSE me, but I didn't know they were enchanted laurels intended to protect houses!"  
  
Lass and fairy never ran out of things to argue about for all the rest of the hike up, Elaine injecting occasionally with her eyewitness reports and Link looking over his shoulder by the bye to grouse at them to stop arguing(which never worked). It managed to keep Elaine and Posie's minds of the heat and the soreness inside their shoes, but then again it had them catfighting constantly in the chicken-like manner that was, if at all possible, ten times worse than the original, moaning "I'm melting!" Link wanted to plug his ears with corks to shut out the sound, but, he reminded himself, he had to keep alert. No telling what lurked on these mountains. Tektites, Dodongo, ghosts. well, so the ghosts weren't all that bad. Though there were so darn many of them it was unsettling: the volcano claimed a lot of unwary victims. Albeit one of those victims had been stabbed in the chest first before being tossed into the lava by a cruelly laughing former friend-but that was a completely different story altogether. And that same one had been brought back to life once by a spell writ to break the curse that bound a ghost to the place of its death. There were also traces of his spirit lingering inside a burned-out mansion in the middle of an even more blackened forest. And it couldn't be forgotten.  
  
"Hey, look at that! Wow, is that the way in to the Goron place?"  
  
Link had been so spaced out thinking of the puzzling life-and death-of his father that he hadn't the cavernous entrance to the Goron City looming ahead in the distance and stopped short his train of thought. Elaine's outburst was a pleasantly happy cheer among a village full of cantankerous cursing, and the gateway a welcome oasis in the broiled obsidian. Link clothed himself in an almost absurdly silly face, biting his tongue and raising his face so it looked like he had only half as much eye. And he was tickled pink that the journey so far had been so breezy and tidy-well, except for the morning's incident with the potion shop and a few Tektites, but nothing major. Now all he had to do was wheedle a pair of child-sized Goron tunics from his Sworn Brother and the gang would be all set for a bit of sizzling spelunking!  
  
Speaking of sizzling, what was that smell?!  
  
"Oh gross! Something really stinks!" Posie's voice was constricted; clearly she was holding her nose.  
  
"Ahh, I really have, sniff, no idea, huff, what it is," ad libbed Link, caught with egg on his face and without a few handy words. Egg.? Yes, rotten eggs. That was that smell! But a Cucco, on Death Mountain? But the only other thing that smelt so strongly of rotten eggs that wasn't rotten eggs was sulfur, and Goron City was much too far from the main cinder cone of the volcano for a stench that powerful to permeate all the way down here. But then again, there were Dodongos.! Dodongos were based on sulfur rather than carbon, and could be found en masse on the lower levels of the mountainside. Even young Dodongos, which frequently exploded when they died, left a powerful reek in the air from the dusty yellow ashes of their combusted bodies. But the big ones were worse, because they carried decay as well as the slowly burning fire of sulfur within them. So, the logical answer was, dead Dodongo. But since when did Gorons get brave enough to tackle the wingless dragons on their own?  
  
As it turned out though, it was sulfur, and an awful stinking lot of it. Apparently it was the limburger cheese of the Goron world. A huge mound of the crystals were mounded in the huge pit in the middle of the city, with round, froggish Gorons pacing to and fro to the heap and back, grabbing and snacking on the yellow mineral. The pungent aroma was overpowering to the three humans, who were all respectively holding their noses.  
  
"Gross! Reeks worse than the fish market back at Grandma's old town. What's that yellow stuff they're eating?!"  
  
"Uggh, smells like rotten eggs! Hey, I thought your grandma was dead."  
  
"She is, you twit, but that doesn't mean the whole place died with her!"  
  
"Enough arguing, girls," Link whined through his mouth as his fingers pinched shut his nostrils. "Those are sulfur crystals. Wonder where they got those from; I though most Gorons were afraid to venture into the volcano."  
  
"Most of us, but we didn't have to. those freaks tried to butter my people up with rare delicacies to try and gain entry, but still I wouldn't let them! They forced their way in but didn't take anything. and they left the food. It doesn't seem to be poisoned, so I figure we might as well indulge ourselves. What ho, Brother!"  
  
The earth trembled with the mighty voice of a creature so gigantic that even Randy Parkerstine would feel dwarfed by his presence, and to the girls, Posie even more especially than Elaine, he was a mountain of leathery, nut-brown flesh, a shock of spiky sand-colored hair, and towering muscular limbs that could easily heave small boulders about. They possessed what would be the strength of an average man donning the magical armlets known as Golden Gauntlets, which would give them the power to lift and heave spectacular columns of granite twenty feet high around twice their length. More powerful than a double-powered Power Bracelet, but a bit weaker than Power Gloves. It all fell gracefully into a form-fit niche in the magical hierarchy of strength-boosters.  
  
Posie felt the gigantic shadow fall over her head before she saw the man-beast that created it, for he had slyly sidestepped right behind the three of them and in front of the door. His domed face had a sly grin hewn from his unusually thin lips, his dark eyes craftily analyzing the two unfamiliars stuck like steamed rice to the almost-family. The one right in front of him. unusually long limbs, cropped red-brown hair, similar eyes and a white dress. hrumph. He hadn't a clue in the Dark World who she could have been. But that other one, sickeningly cute with such large blue eyes and baby-fragile blonde hair-yet dragonly daring, toting about a miniature sword and shield. And who else-besides a rabid fanatic-would wear the same sort of Kokirish tunic?  
  
Link seemed to forget entirely that the room stank and he released his nose from their vice, turning round to see his old friend with outstretched arms. "Darunia!" he exclaimed, jogged around the girls, and flung himself as best he could around the bulging torso of the portly-yet brawny-Golem of flesh. Of course, being hugged back was a different matter entirely, which was why it way important to pull back as soon as possible because no Goron could resist a good hug, no laughing matter considering the horsepower packed into their arms. Darunia did look disappointed. Link looked relieved.  
  
"Heh. Brother. It's been a while, hasn't it?"  
  
"Several years. Not since the little Wizrobe incident."  
  
"Yeah. not since the Wizrobe incident." For having been the one to plan the meeting, Link was remarkably at a loss for words. And Darunia, who hadn't been expecting him at all, was as fully articulate as always. Perhaps one of the perks of being leader was learning how to be a good impromptu speaker. "Ssssso. How's it been, eh?" Link pulled his hands against his sides and flexed open and closed his fists, like he was trying to grab Darunia's words out of the thin air into which he breathed them.  
  
"Oh, so-so. We've given a little, taken a little, put up with the rain up here at times. rejoiced as dark clouds have passed. The only things worth noting have been with Biggoron finally making a pair of safety glasses big enough for him to wear and of course, them."  
  
"Them?"  
  
"Ah, blasted hags. Would you believe those terrible Dragmire sisters had the nerve to show up here the other day? You know, the ones who call themselves Twinrova?"  
  
"Twinrova! Foul creatures!" Link's face imploded as if he'd just scarfed a dozen lemon candies. "Your son mentioned that a couple of what he called 'frog-like things' showed up but I never would have suspected those two!" Navi rolled her eyeballs. "What'd they want anyway? Link mentioned something about searching the city."  
  
"They wanted to get in. said they'd repented and turned over a new leaf, and wanted to show us just how good they were by walking freely among the city and not harming a soul. Didn't believe that Moblin-wash for a second! Then they tried bribery. sulfur is a rare treat for my people. Tried salt, too. We like it just as much as you humans do. Though we'd never bother using it for money. But I still said no, so that one of 'em blasted me with ice and forced her way in. In about an hour she came back, holding a jar. it wasn't one of ours, but I don't remember her having it when she first came. Then she and her sister left. Nobody was missing, nobody hurt, nothing stolen. I could have been wrong, I guess, but still. I'm suspicious. What do you and your senses say, Link?"  
  
"I'd say something fishy is up, alright, and those two are just plotting. Trying to make themselves look good. But I wouldn't worry too much. With Ganon dead and gone, the power of evil in Hyrule is about ninety-nine point nine percent less potent. And don't even get me started on Veran, Onox, Agahime, the Nightmares. they're has-beens."  
  
"The world is in safe hands with you as its champion, Link," Darunia chuckled. "Who knows, perhaps Hyrule may even have two saviors!"  
  
It was Link's turn to laugh. "Yeah, in another hundred years. Only one Hero of Time per century, remember?"  
  
"Maybe," mused Darunia placidly, "But. nobody ever said anything about Heroine of Time, did they?" His eyes drifted blissfully down to a stunned Posie, whose mouth had been agape as she listened to the fascinating exchange between her father and her "uncle." "I think your little one here-no offence, kid-has the same fighting spirit in her you have. I can see it in those scheming eyes. Oh, does she ever have your eyes!"  
  
"Uhhh...." Posie was a tad unsure of how to act. Did she act cute, saying, "Izzat s'pposed to be a compliment, mister?" or did she act more like her real self, saying, "Well gee, thanks, but I've heard it a million times before"? This was supposed to be a friend of her father's.who obviously knew who she was. so it was probably a good idea to protect his rep, and hers at that. She opted for the second.  
  
Darunia bemusedly contemplated her reply. "And your cheek, it appears. Has she been training long or is this a recent engagement of hers?"  
  
"Well, roughly since you and I last met, which could be recent or whilesome depending on whose time frame you tally it from. Three years is an awful lot of time to a child," he sighed. "But to me, it's fairly recent. Even more recent to you. Those I'll tell you, she's awfully good. Now she's got her own little sword and everything. Don't tell her I said this, but it makes her look so darn cute!" he whispered to Darunia, who gave a small, belly-chuckle.  
  
"I think if there was meant to be a Heroine of Time, Posie would certainly be it! With your blood, and a Sage's, no less, I can imagine no one more qualified, with a proper bit of training! I can easily see her just as famous in the future as you are right now... a Hero to top all Heroes!" Darunia's voice was full of earnest confidence.  
  
"Much to her dismay," Link mumbled. "She hates fame. Wars with it like a Zora with a Gerudo. Besides... I hardly think I'm anything compared with the Heroes of Time of the past. Like Titan Paulat. If you want my opinion, he was the greatest Hero of Time there ever was. As some say these days... he had 'mad skills.'"  
  
"'Mad skills!'" Darunia scoffed. "So maybe he stopped a couple of civil wars of olden times and was the guardian and mentor to the first King... did he ever save THE entire world, and I mean Ebridane and everything beyond it, from the grip of an evil pig sorcerer, or re-align the seasons, or travel to the future and back to free the world from a malicious curse only to be returned to the body of a child with nobody except his two best friends and a couple of strange lunatic beings who practically worshiped him? No Hero's ever done all the things you have! Why do you think you're so famous?"  
  
"'Cuz I got lucky," and soon the both of them were laughing and slapping their thighs and holding their faces and enjoying each other's company again like the old friends they were. The girls, who had watched, but not heard much, looked on bewilderedly having assumed them both to have spontaneously gone crazy. Link's many appurtenances were clanking and rattling as he shook, creating a racketing clamor that surprisingly left most of the Gorons unfazed. Elaine swung her finger in a circle about the side of her head, and the lopsided motion acting alongside her tripped grin had Posie smiling broadly and sunnily. She pinched her eyes shut tight so she wouldn't wobble apart as well.  
  
Darunia wiped an absurd tear from his eye with a massive finger and bit his own tongue to stop himself from trembling. His foot- stamping was carrying on through the cavernous mountainside, after all. "Kuha! Well, this has been a pleasant meeting, after all. But seriously. Is there anything in particular you were after, in coming up this way?"  
  
"Oh! Right!" Link put his hand up behind his head and grimaced stupidly. He had completely forgotten about what he'd come up here to ask about! "Well, you know, we're on this adventure, see..."  
  
Link proceeded to explain to Darunia that the three of them were hunting for the Scholar's Tomb atop the icy Mt. Ipanajou, in which they believed the ancient relic known as the Sword of Obedience was housed. He explained how Posie was troubled by her inability to perform the spinning slash, who Elaine was and why she was there, and Saria's rigmarole on ev-ry-thing they were to do until they were able to return home. The day ere, Posie, feet feeling several hundred degrees below zero in her boots, had made a quip about "likely cutting more grass than beast hide" once she had finally acquired the knack for this Blade technique. It had been a last ditch effort to avoid going, one that failed miserably. She could feel the pit of her stomach hit rock bottom when the wisecrack hadn't served her. Now it was beginning to dig as Link asked if it was possible to borrow a set of Goron tunics so that her and Elaine would be able to accompany him into the volcano.  
  
Darunia held his bristly chin as he pondered this request. "I think I just may have one in Elaine's size, but it's old-can't remember for the life of me why I ever had it made. But Posie, on the other hand, well... that may just be a bit more of a problem. Though I'll tell you, It'll probably do those girls some good to get out of what they're wearing now. What happened to them, anyway? Did they fall into a rainbow-berry bush?"  
  
"Long story," said Link with his palm halfway cupped around his mouth. "To make it short, BASH, CRASH and of course SMASH. Tagan equals angry, potion shop equals destroyed and the girls equal soaked. Look, just lead the way to your room, will you? Posie and Elaine are getting antsy back there."  
  
This was only halfway true, as the reality was Posie and Elaine were trying to giggle as quiet as they could as they each pulled funny impressions of the bumbling grown-ups who talked in whispers and were so insistent on reminiscing on silly things and people of the past. A soul could only take so much of a little girl parading about with her chest out, waving a sword and saying, in a deep, raspy voice, "Take that, Moblin muck!" before it said to itself, hey, that's amusing, and started to chortle.  
  
"Fine then, let's get a move on," mumbled Darunia. "Come along, girls, it's a bit of a trek down to my room. We've got to descend into the belly of the cavern, and as you can see, that's a long way down."  
  
Elaine gulped and peered cautiously at the unguarded precipice, save for a few stringent ropes that warily suspended a waning wooden platform. "Gulp... ya mean, we're gonna go down in there?"  
  
"She's kinda claustrophobic," hastily explained Posie.  
  
"Aww, it's an open top! What are you worrying about? It gets smaller as you go down, not bigger! The walls aren't going to collapse on you!"  
  
"Pipe down Navi," and Elaine sniggered coyly when Link and Posie both instinctively snapped back at the fairy retort in unison.  
  
  
  
"So, Brother. Pick up any good gossip lately? Maybe something down at Kakariko Pub..."  
  
"Aww, Darunia," Link flushed, "you know I never listen to, phesh, gossip-half of it is about me anyway! Can't keep up with the stuff anyway. I try to go, pari passu-and if I try to bring something up, the ladies give me the litany on talking about last week's news. Why do you ask? I mean, the girls probably know more than I do, seeing as kids, well, you know, mouths at sixty miles per hour. Get it? Sixty miles, sixty minutes, mile a minute... ehh heh."  
  
A big, pudgy, Goron grin replied, "And I see your attempts at humor are still as sour as ever. It's better than the famed 'ghost jar' incident, but-"  
  
"Goddesses, must you remind me? I get a guilt trip every time I think of it. Worst joke I ever made; 'just trying to keep my spirits up,' and really... Can we pick a new subject? Why did you ask me about gossip?!?!"  
  
"Oh, clues. As to what Twinrova could be up to. You never know. I've seen Moblins pop up there before, and them typically being either in league with those two bug-eyed hacks or mercenary, well... maybe they know what's going on?"  
  
"Naw, Koume and Kotake are too smart to go telling their plans to a bunch of toadies. Besides, you try getting even a smidgen of information off a drunken Moblin!"  
  
"Fair point. I've seen those disgusting pigs churl more ale in one night than a whole army can in a week, and even that only begins to toy with their thinking. It's why I never hire them to guard the city even when the offer... moreover, they'd probably be spying. And why don't you drop that heavy backpack and let me carry it? It must weigh such an awful lot to your body; you'll throw out your spine in a couple of days even as it were!"  
  
The wicked steps jutting out from the floors and tunnels that zigzagged down and up, left and right were enough to slice even the best leather boots into strips of furred leather in no time. Unless, of course, they'd been pretreated and doused in a pool of forest magic beforehand. But that didn't stop Posie's feet from dancing in red flames as she laboriously crawled up stair after stair. Day one, barely ten 'o clock, and she already had blisters on her feet. In the dry, parched conditions that smothered the mountain, aloe plants should have been a staple shrub, but the soil, where there was any, was far too rocky and hard for even the desert weed's hardy roots to crumble through. And Link thought she was only getting lessons from him. Well, he didn't know that she'd been keeping a close eye and spongy mind on Saria's potions-brewing! There were far too many complicated recipes, requiring adequate motions of the hand and corresponding magic tweaks, for her to remember them all, but simpler mixtures Posie had written by rote on a notepad in her head. Aloe was excellent for soothing blisters, insect bites, and burns just by itself, she proudly remembered. If she could just get her hands on something for her howling hooves...  
  
"How much farther, Uncle Darunia?" she questioned.  
  
"We're about three fourths of the way down, kid, so hold your horses. We'll be there soon enough. Say... speaking of horses, Link..."  
  
"I've decided I'm not going to take the risk." Like any old friend, Link was an ace at filling in the blanks Darunia finished his sentences. "Epona's a good old horse, and ever faithful, but she's fourteen now, which is about middle age for a horse. We're going over and up mountains, you know! Not even, say, Terut would be up to a glacial cap swarming with Freezzard and Wolfos and heaven knows what else. And he's ten years younger than her. It's not much of a place for any horse, really. So I won't chance either of them getting seriously hurt."  
  
"And you're worried about the horses..."  
  
********************************  
  
"Gah-a! This thing is itchy!"  
  
"Well, Elaine," Link said calmly, "it's got Dodongo skin woven in among the fabric, which is very very rough. But if it wasn't there, these clothes wouldn't protect you from heat. And without that defense, you can't go into Death Mountain Crater, can you?"  
  
"Death Mountain Crater? Whoever said I wanted in?"  
  
Posie was silent, but judging by the way she constantly tugged at her collar and discreetly scratched her back, she agreed wholeheartedly. It had been just her luck that the Goron Chieftess was a collectors of dolls, and one of them just happened to have a genuine Goron tunic for an outfit. Elaine looked silly out of her dress, but at least she was clean. Darunia held their soiled clothes draped over his arm, where they could properly dry(without sweaty bodies to hinder the process) before they asked the Great Fairy for use of her cleansing fountain. It was easy to get the feeling she didn't like to give away its use for tasks as trivial as washing clothes, but potion stains could be awfully stubborn...  
  
"I'll face my fears, I'll face my fears, I'll face-"  
  
"Hmmm?"  
  
"Eheheh, nothing," mumbled Elaine to herself followed by what sounded like a "shoot." "I'm just gonna go explore the lower level now, if that's alright. And Posie's coming with me, right, Pose?"  
  
Posie looked a little blank, not having recalled discussing any such plans, until Elaine hissed into her ear, "I need you for moral support." Then, for reasons which neither Link or Darunia could fathom, her mouth ringed in an "O" of recognition and she began to nod. "Yeah, right. That OK, Daddy?"  
  
"Fine," sighed Link, and he took their clothes and his own(he, too, had changed into more heat-suitable wear) from their muscular rack. "I'll be in here. You know which doors are which. And stay on the lower level!"  
  
"Kids," he laughed to himself as they scurried off to wonder in the pit of the city, no matter how bad it smelled. "I just hope they don't cause any trouble."  
  
HISS.  
  
"You brats! What are you doing?! Didn't your mommies ever tell you not play with-"  
  
KABOOM!  
  
BASH! CRASH! SMASH!  
  
"It was an accident!"  
  
The winded Goron puffed a damaged little bit of smoke before he choked and collapsed.  
  
What was the point in hoping they wouldn't be a pain to the locals when it was their natural lot in life as kindergartners? Link took a heavy whiff of the smoky air. "Sorry, Dari, but I'm afraid there are a couple of Bomb Flowers out there that need a quick replanting..." 


	7. Hot, Hot, Hot

(Another Author's Note: In case some of you get a bit confused by the paragraph where Link reminisces about his father and a few parts of Ocarina of Time, lemmie esplain: I write my fics from a point of view where Zelda is a real thing Shingeru Miyamoto just borrows from. Therefore, things are a bit more "realistic:" some dungeons are downright puny, bad guys bleed and die some pretty violent deaths, and things happen in ways that are slightly different from they way they happen in the game. What Link is referring to in his thoughts is "the truth" about Zelda: how some things get played around with to make it more game-like. If you have really strong beliefs and/or theories that you protect like a big dog protecting a steak, now might be a good time to stop reading. But if you guard your theories as rabidly as I do and still wanna read on, kudos to you on not letting a little stubbornness(sorry, no offence anyone) get in the way of your enjoying fanfiction. 'S better'n I could ever do.)  
  
(Oh, and don't worry. I'd NEVER make the chickens innocent.)  
  
Spinning Slash, Chapter 7: Hot, Hot, Hot  
  
She'd had about one too many choked refrains of "Hyrule, o'er the mist..." as it was, but this was just pathetic.  
  
"If you're going to sing yourself to laryngitis, Elaine, could you at least do it in tune? I think poor Link's ears are turning red!"  
  
"Navi, every PART of us is turning red," snarled Posie, whose flushed face was puckered in such a way it resembled a cheeky little rosebud. But the "dewdrops" that adorned the jowl-formed "petals" were sour and disgustingly clingy. "We could be walking through the Sacred Realm. I've never seen such huge waves in the air. And it's so parched, I could poor a bucket of sand down my throat to moisten it up. The sword on my back must weight a million pounds, and my hands are all sweaty beneath my gauntlets. I desperately want a rest. I want to find this Great Fairy person and get through this volcano crater and let that be over with it, but its not that simple is it? You've got your magic to keep you cool, Navi. I've got zilch." Her teeth clenched with a click and began to grate up against each other.  
  
"Well, life's not all Lon Lon Cream," said Navi, quoting a popular Hylean proverb. "You have to take the good with the bad. Won't it all be worth it in the end? You'll get to show off to all the Kokiri, and your mother and Atahl, and your auntie and great-uncle and maybe even Princess Zelda. And won't you be a step closer to you dream?"  
  
"Maybe, but that's really quite far-fetched. All the Kokiri are unimpressed by the slash now, and auntie Arril and my uncle and great uncle I hardly ever see. And Zelda? Pah. I wish. She's a fruit anyway." Posie's sigh was laden with her exhaustion. "Oh, look, a fork in the path," she looked up towards where Link plodded leadenly onward and peered two dark holes bored into the grayish brown cliffside and a large, kneeling boulder secured behind a small hill of stone. She blinked a bead of sweat off of her eyelash and swallowed a pocket of foul gas. She hacked roughly, expelling from her lungs the acrid sting of the burning sulfur air, eyes watering so far that her earlier eye-bats had been in vain.  
  
"Alright back there, Posie?"  
  
"Fine," came her constricted reply. "Just a bit of a mishap with the stench!"  
  
And oh, what a stench! If the Goron City had been bad, this was ten times worse and steeped into the atmosphere. It was as if it had always been a presence there, which wasn't far from the truth, and initiated a gag reflex so powerful not even the sight of a dead Tektite, wound in its exoskeleton gushing fluids, could trigger it. The smell didn't seem to be quite as bad if you were standing behind Link, who seemed to have a halo of pure, sweet oxygen surrounding him to breathe, but when a horrifically fiery zephyr whirled passed, swathes of the suffocating odor enveloped Navi and the two girls. So they scuttled up against his legs as close as they could get, hoping the almost-yellow air would tickle past their noses and nothing more. Grimly displayed as well lingered something intoxicating and sweet, similar to the herbs that spiced Saria's little shop of potions. But it also had a clue of crushed flower petals swirled about in it, heavy like perfume. It was arguably the strangest pallet of smells ever combined. Unless you counted the grapefruit-Scent Seed experiment. But that was a different matter entirely.  
  
"Don't worry, it'll clean up in a minute. Aside from protection against heat, these Goron Tunics are hand-dandy air scrubbers as well. They absorb most of the smells of sulfur, since the Dodongo skin from which these are crafted has evolved to do the same. Dodongos have sensitive sinuses you know... why feeding them bombs gets 'em. They literally have iron guts, but they become almost completely unable to breathe when their throats and lungs fill up with smoke. Remember that if you ever encounter a Dodongo, girls. Dodongo dislikes smoke."  
  
Link chuckled. Was that supposed to be funny?  
  
"So, uh... are we going in there or something?" asked a shaky Elaine, pointing a finger into the right crevasse, pulsing with a unappetizing glow.  
  
"Well, eventually," Link answered, looking down. "Ipanajou's a long ways away, but there's supposedly a shortcut leading to some forgotten passage to Ruto's Cave, which we can follow to ANOTHER shortcut, which should lead us out right at Ipanajou's base. I figure we can shave a good week that way. But first, we take that way," and he indicated the left hole, emitting the meadowy scent. "That's where the Great Fairy of Power lives, an old buddy of Posie's grandpa. And mine. Her fountain of purification is just the ticket we're looking for to clean off your normal clothes... dried potion stains are awfully bovine to remove. You can ask your mother, Posie; you wouldn't believe how many good skirts she's lost!"  
  
Posie, however, was not interested in skirts or the laundering of potion from Kokiri Tunics and Hylean Cotton, but in gawking about with her mouth wide open had revealed to her the Goron-colored boulder imposed delicately behind the counter-top arch encompassing it. It was downright curious... too sandy to be natural, and far too rough-hewn, but the patterns engraved upon its top looked typical enough. She put her hand on her chin, pondering the way she'd seen detective characters do in plays, craning her head like an owl to sum up the boulder's angles.  
  
"Pose... what are you looking at?"  
  
"That lump on the ridge... doesn't it look a bit odd to you?"  
  
"Odd?" Elaine shrugged her shoulders. "It's just a rock!" Her arms coiled and uncoiled, starting with her limbs bent up at the elbows and slowly unfurling down in a wave motion that expanded to the joints in her fingers. "It's a part of the mountain. What is there to wonder about?"  
  
Link silently turned around, looked down at the girls arguing, and absorbed a bemused mask. Slyly he derricked up his neck to gaze narrow-eyed at the stone that was causing all this commotion and mumbled, barely audible even to the girls, "Hello, Biggoron."  
  
Stillness as the girls continued to yatter back and fourth. A few stones slid and clicked in a hollow, pumice sound as they cascaded, doomed, down the mountain and ricocheted off of the cliffs. This was enough to draw silence from the girls in mid-sentence, freezing their livid limbs tundra, eyes glassily forward. Slowly their heads contorted to force their eyes upon each other.  
  
Yellow dust and brilliant, white ash shifted in a magically appearing cloud above the stone, while a quarry of brittle lava-foam rock clashed in a sweeping cascade over a ledge hidden by the upsweep of the rigidified liquid rock and the bloated earthy boulder. Hidden by the heavy mass had been a pair of identical, yet smaller slabs-no, wait, they were uncurling! They were limbs, stuffed to their seams with muscle and sinew. A familiarly teardrop-shaped face, with precious irises deep as the seas of their color, was latched on to the heavyset body. The Goron of a house's proportions had arms crafted like Darunia's, yet his body was as pampered and pudgy as those of the lower denizens in Goron City. His mouth, a cave nearly as great as those drilling into the mountain, howled open as he gave a gurgly yawn, blinked and rubbed the powder from his eyes, and clamped his hands to the ledge, giving an inquisitive peep over the edge of his little shelf.  
  
"Goro, my eyesss are playing tricksss on me again... I sssee two Linksss, one very sssmall, one normal sssize... and another ssstrange one... goro. Isss that you who ssspoke, whichever of you isss the real Link?"  
  
Link(the real one, in conformity with the Goron's suspicions) laughed. "Bi'gor'n," he said, giving the name by its Goron pronunciation, "It's me. I'm right here."  
  
Biggoron didn't quite seem to catch the man's mouth moving and instead tilted his head at Posie and let out a groan that shook the mountain to its foundations. "Goro! I ssshouldn't have eaten all thossse rocksss... Look at me... I have gotten ssso big, look how sssmall you are compared to me!" He reached out and plucked the unfortunate child up delicately by the back of her shirt, looking woefully into her face the best he could. "I am ssso sssorry, Little Brother!"  
  
"Owwwww!" Posie kicked and flailed her tiny fists. "Lemmie down! Lemmie down!"  
  
The startled Goron suddenly released his grip, then shot out another padded hand to catch the fluttering child. She hit his fleshly palm and rebounded up almost her full height, then came back down with a jolting bounce. Whupped about by the slipstream her hair was eccentric, and most of her stomach had leapt up into her throat. She righted herself out on the springy surface, looked up at the Goron, and gave a stupidly improvised grin and a mild "Ehheheh" to compensate for the awkward silence.  
  
"Sssorry, little sssissster," Biggoron hissed. "I missstook you for brother Link. And what would your name be, petite Link?"  
  
"Ah..." She blew an offending bang from her eyes with a small whiff of breath. "I'm Posie. Posie Cassandra Blade. But most folks don't call me all of that. Just Posie. Or Pose. If you're my friend. Which I guess you could be. Maybe. But you aren't yet."  
  
It was only too obvious she was embarrassed; her distressing ad libbing and fractured speech was proof. Curse her horrible way with strangers! But at least there was no need to read the so-adorable-it-should- have-been-a-sin act! If her father was friendly with this mountainous Goron, all was safe. In fact, his accent was terribly amusing, even if she was scared stiff. It warmed her nerves considerably to know at least she sounded fairly intelligent compared to this droll creature.  
  
"P'sssie! What a sssilly sssort of name." Then again, this giant probably found her quite a sight as well, just as Goro-Link had. Humans had to be even scarcer near the entrance to a volcano crater! "Mine isss Bi'gor'n. Or Biggoron, as humansss call me. Casss'ndra Blade. Isss that all your sssurname or isss there more to it?"  
  
"Well, Cassandra is my middle name, actually. Blade isss-er, is my last."  
  
"Mussst be quite common," Big dimly wondered. "It isss the sssame one as brother Link'sss and the Ssspirit of the Volcano."  
  
"Erm, Spirit of the Volcano?"  
  
"Yesss," he nodded in reply. "The Ssspirit lives inside the volcano. He knowsss a lot of sssword lore. I have ssseen him only once, when I went inssside to melt down iron ore-he took a look at the blade I wasss crafting and told me it wasss of the finest quality he had ssseen in a long time. But I hear him talking to himssself, all the time..."  
  
"Cool!" Posie wiggled over on to her stomach and peeped over the edge of the Goron's massive index finger. "Didja hear that, Daddy? There's a Spirit that lives inside the volcano and he knows all about swords! Maybe he'll know what to do about finding the Sword of Obedience!"  
  
"The Sssword of Obedience!" Biggoron stuffed a laugh, for it was a tale all sword-crafters knew well, or at least, those trained by the old masters such as the Great Fairies. So Link was out looking for the Sword of Obedience... likely heard about its power to give the "ability to control all swords" to the first to touch it. Big only hoped Link knew exactly what that meant, for it was quite literally a two-edged sword in the truth department that could be misinterpreted very easily unless this power of its was explained in its entirety. One who held the Sword of Obedience wouldn't need an army to take over the world, they could simply call upon their battalion of deathless and deadly soldiers of steel...  
  
But he shook his gargantuan head. Of course Link knew that. In fact, he was probably going on this quest to stop the sword from falling into the wrong hands by destroying the ghastly tool. It didn't take a genius to figure out Link's intentions. And luckily(or perhaps not) for Biggoron, he was no genius.  
  
"Down, then, Little Sssissster," and he lowered his hands to let Posie hop off and pop back onto the ground. After walking on the spongy Goron tissue, the earth felt strange and fixed to the soles of her feet. Now that the golem was curling back up into a lumpy ball behind her, she had no extra passengers to distract her train of thought and could consciously notice the smell had all but disappeared.  
  
She had plucked off onto the pinnacle of the stone wave and stood proud above her friends for a few minutes, feeling taller than she ever had before, with her chest out, shoulders swayed, and fists clenched. Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine herself looking out over the field, where there had just been staged a battle she had won... steel rang as her sword was drawn, her shield clicked from its clasps and hung in front of her, and with a deep breath she began to really feel intoxicated with the excitement of everything she was about to undertake. It was not unlike what you might experience before going on an exciting ride at a theme park for the first time-especially one that has just opened. With a jaunty slide down the slope that blew dust out from beneath her like a crest of water, she stood in front of a more than slightly awestruck Link and Elaine and said, in a voice pumped with confidence, "Let's go."  
  
  
  
If all the balefire in hell had been cranked up to maximum burning capacity it probably wouldn't have been quite as hot as the inside of Death Mountain, much to the distress of the girls. They had more than likely been expecting the Goron tunics to act as miracle air conditioners that would prodigiously keep them cool as a pair of reddish cucumbers as the gaily frolicked above the lava pits in complete comfort. Naturally they did no such thing-while they protected their fragile young human bodies from nasty conditions like heat stroke, it could do nothing to stop the frying feeling they got with every step they took. Even inside the Great Fairy's Fountain the temperature had been at least a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, the silver and holy fountain steaming as if it were a tub of bath water.  
  
Indeed, the Fairy had been reluctant to let a couple of potion-stained tunics go to laundering in the clearer-than-crystal pool. But just a small sopping in the liquid and all the offensive substances dissipated instantly leaving no trace of their ever being there. Pulling them out, and you couldn't even tell they had been wet! Still, if they hoped to survive through the mountain, there was no donning them over again.  
  
Link had his eyes peeled, sweeping over the pits of lava to the exactitude of someone searching for something, while making quick jerks back now and then to allow the panting girls to keep up. Navi slugged alongside them snarling every now and then; "Stay away from that edge! What if it crumbled and you fell in?" Cinder cones spewed clouds of ash that obscured the sky above; the sun was no more than an aureate blot just barely visible in a heaven of smog. Navi wanted to know, smugly, where all of the smoke was coming from if there was no fire burning within the volcano. Link replied, even more snootily, that she was the genius and shouldn't have to ask. She opened her mouth to snap that she had been asking the girls to see if they knew it was ash and not smoke, but a rumbling retort from the floor caused a temporary panic that shut her up. The gang broke the knotty huddle they'd formed and were on.  
  
Silently Link cursed the tremor. He didn't like the way the smell of sulfur was temporarily strong enough to take over his Dodongan defenses. It meant a deep fissure had opened somewhere, and that could mean that either an eruption or an earthquake was eminent. A quake they could stand, they'd just have to rush for the cover of a small cove in the walls of the crimson cavern-but if the magma began to ooze to the surface, it'd take more than a little cave to keep them safe...  
  
Impulsively his hand shot to his belt, closing around the Ocarina that was a gift to him from Zelda. If he couldn't find what he was looking for, it would be their only hope. But would the molten sea overtake them too quickly? Softly he mumbled to himself, "C'mon, Dad, where are you?" He know the spirit's ethereal aegis would be enough to guard the three of them from the cauldron of doom, as it had protected him when he had fallen in once before. And it was also what had let him wade across the sloshing red pit(though he first attributed it to his Goron Tunic) separating him from Volvagia on the first adventure of his, the one thrown into the dustbin of Hyrule's history by the Triforce's power. But the one he was least likely to forget. Come to think of it, it'd been thrown into the dustbin of the rest of the world's history as well. It was all Mr. M, who always had to play around with the events in his life to make that "game" more entertaining. He who turned a small, yet eerie corridor into a sprawling dungeon, sprung Rupees from grass and a felled beast, and generally distorted the truth a little more with every adventure he adapted. Some of Link's outworld fans might be fairly surprised at the real, bloody reality of it all, where the brigs were mercifully smaller, most of them, but the situations were stranger, the battles full of whipping gore, and no cheep cash could be made in real life from simply weed-whacking.  
  
Something fiery and hard made Link flinch as it grazed passed his cheek. His arm jerked up from his torso and pressed against the gash on his face. A small pumice stone lay at his feet. With his free hand he bent double and scooped it up, rolling it around in his palm with a curious mask.  
  
A mass the size of a softball slammed into his back, something covered in jagged spines that cut into the fibers of his tunic and knocked the breath from his body and made him drop the rock in shock. He coughed; gasped for breath; wiped the irritated drops from his eyes and gave his head a quick throw-back to shake away his bangs from his face.  
  
Another pebble made a sharp, almost metallic sound and it shattered on the floor just a few inches away from Elaine's feet; she leapt to the side, fell on the floor and rolled over in an almost knight- esque style as another one streaked past where her head would have been a second earlier. Posie, terrified out of her wits, simply hit the deck right then and there and cowered with her shield helmeting her head. A wise move, actually. A few pieces of loose, volcanic gravel would certainly give her head a rattling, but a good-sized chunk of the scouring stone would shatter her small skull like brittle eggshell.  
  
"Girls!" he called out, trying to keep his voice as free from panic as possible. "We've got trouble!" Not like they needed to be told, anyone huddling beneath a rain of burning foamy rocks could probably figure that much out for themselves. "The volcano doesn't appear to like us much! We'd better find shelter under a ledge before one of us gets beaned!"  
  
Trembling, Posie pulled herself to her feet and sprinted for Link's side, her shield still held over her head in a life-guarding steel umbrella. Link knelt as she came and straightened up as soon as she was safely snuggled up into his chest; in a gesture of true innocence for once, she asked, "Did we make the Spirit of the Volcano mad, Daddy?"  
  
"No, love, in fact, if he knows we're here, he's probably doing all he can to make sure we're all OK. But I think we might have upset it a little... there must've been a gas explosion that caused this shower of rock. There're no more tremors or rising magma levels to suggest that the volcano could be erupting. You alright there, Elaine?"  
  
Just as she pulled herself up to her feet, she shot away to avoid a few loose piece of stony shrapnel. "A-O-K, Mr. B! Juuuust a few minor... nyueh!"  
  
A large lump pegged her in the backside and pinned her to the floor.  
  
"Elaine!" Link's grip tightened just as Posie began to thrust against him with all her might, pulling free, dropping her shield aside, and rushing over to aid Elaine. The piece of lava rock that plugged her was small enough for her to shove aside without much assistance, but so was the tendency of small children to either under- or over-exaggerate. So Posie was simply riveted through with gruesome mental images of Elaine, being crushed to death beneath a gigantic boulder in a predicament somehow only she could have remedied. She was bracing her back to the stone now, skidding her feet backwards into the ocher soil but barely finding any give in the rock.  
  
Elaine wasn't in the mood for that sort of clowning around, and arched up her back like a cat. The stone rolled off easily.  
  
"Posie! You nutcase, you're going to get yourself killed! C'mon, grab your shield we gotta get out of here! On second thought, I'll grab it; you just concentrate on getting yourself to cover!"  
  
Link's earlier observations were now proving to be wrong-at least, one of them was, the crater now buzzed with geo-thermal shifting. In layman's terms, an earthquake! More and more volcanic bullets rattled and bounced on the floor, much smaller but in greater quantities. Link had hunched over to shelter the girls in his arms, a steady cascade of pebbles clattering off his back but leaving him generally unfazed. Posie was hiding behind her shield again. In contrast to her father, bravery was not one of her strong points. She was positively terrified.  
  
Just as abruptly as it had started, the rumbling stopped. Posie peeked cautiously out from behind her metal dome. Link glanced skyward just long enough to see something small and dark hovering just beyond the volcano's cloud cover, before he blinked and missed it. Elaine gaped silently around. Link gazed forward... the cost seemed clear enough...  
  
A great flash of brilliant red light erupted behind Link, and he impulsively hunched forward even farther and squinted his eyes shut tight. The tremendous ball of fire, if that's what it was, exploded in a hail of stinging embers and terrific shards of rock blasted in all directions.  
  
Run now, his mind told him, run or you'll never make it out of here alive.  
  
He didn't stop to think a second longer. He wailed at the top of his lungs to sprint as far as possible from the wall behind them, and it was dèja vu all over again. Elaine went Link's way while Posie stood, petrified, barely able to move. Noticing a shadow just her size squeezed precariously between the walls, she took a perilous chance and dove for it. Link and Elaine never noticed her slip out of sight down a dark lava tube- they just heard her yelp as her soles lost their footing on the slick, obsidian path.  
  
"Posie!" Link sprawled his legs to break and whirled around on his hips, but it was far too late. Screaming debris from the fiery blast deluged over the sharp overhang from which they were borne and cluttered the well-hidden entrance, piling up almost to the height they'd started at. Elaine, behind from the start, was now several inches ahead, and read Link's mind as she started to heave rocks away from the stack.  
  
It was dangerous work, as the wall were still shaking and rocks bounced down the hill from time to time. Over the deafening roar, Elaine shouted, "Posie! Can you hear me down there? ...If you're down there?"  
  
In a small hollow in the mountainside, barely half the size of Posie's own room back home, Posie had somersaulted into a pitch-black grotto, inflated with stale air that made her gag is disgust. She took a few deep breaths and waited for her tunic to scrub away the sour smells, and paused for her eyes to adjust, but either they were doing a very bad job of it or the entire place was made out of cold, glassy obsidian. Not a single fleck of light danced anywhere on the slick walls.  
  
Suddenly the entire place went jade, as green as the view from a pair of night-vision goggles, and Posie irritably glanced right and left, expecting that annoying pest Navi to have followed. Instead, she gaped, almost happily surprised, to see following a curious orb of viridian light behind her. Mage-light had a funny habit of popping up exactly when you needed it most, even if you weren't even trying to summon it. Just as well, anyway, it was the only piece of her magic she had even menial control over.  
  
The walls glinted, reflecting the little sphere's luminance. Obsidian indeed it was. But the floor felt more powdery, and she looked down to see, what would have been were her mage-light white, gray dust. In the current filter of color, it was blackish teal. It was nowhere near as packed as most of the soil around the mountain, and what was fairly solid felt... hollow. Like she was standing upon some sort of tunnel. She gazed around... despite it being carved into the brimstone, it felt very cold inside that small cave... physically and spiritually. Mumbling to no one in particular except herself, she said, "Let's get out of here..."  
  
Something shifted.  
  
The scratching and scrabbling was minute, but Posie's sensitive Hylean ears could pick it up; little grains of sand falling and scattering. The tips of her ears quivered and looked fuzzy at the edges, and she made no point of trying to hide(who was there to see?) the way the rest of her body fell into the pattern. A pothole was now forming in front of her... her breathing ricocheted around in the polished room... something mottled, translucent, and green was starting to poke up out of the hole... her mage- light flickered and everything went dark...  
  
There was a horrible, hoarse squelching sound, and the next thing she knew something had rammed into her stomach. She coughed as it knocked her back into a wall, pounding her head painfully. Her vision seemed to be swimming, but then again, it was hard to tell because it was so dark. She did feel awfully dizzy, though. She made an attempt to stand, only to have a thick, sinewy stalk of some sort sweep beneath her feet and knock her to the left. She groaned, cast her eyes right and left, and propped herself up on her arms. She could hear whatever-it-was squirming around on the floor, making those squealing sounds and occasionally making a "fumph" sound and creating small eddies in the normally still climate. It was about as big as she was, she could tell... but whether it had it in for her or just happened to be knocking her around in its crazy flailing was uncertain.  
  
No. It was trying to attack her, whatever it was. This was its space. She was an intruder. She had to be dealt with. The logic flowed into her mind so effortlessly that she was surprised she hadn't thought of it in the first place. Well, then, the answer seemed simple enough. Get out of there.  
  
She shuffled as quickly as possible along the wall, her back glued flat against it. Arms outstretched, she felt in front of her for the portal she'd fallen through.  
  
Not much luck there! She'd left her stomach exposed, and doubled over when again the creature slammed into her. Apparently it could see in the dark. Goodie. Well, no use trying to lie low, then-just had to run for it. But her feet sank in the peppery land. Already fumbling, a solid blow to her back gave her a mouthful of bitter ash-gravel.  
  
Grr, her brain howled at her, you've been training since you were two, dimwit! You just gonna let this little thing push you around? Fight, stupid, fight!  
  
She could feel the treacherous body heat slinking closer. But she was ready this time around. On a second's twitch, she bowled over to the right and heard the monster quite satisfactorily scrape in the dirt. She used her spare second to clench up and vault to her feet, springing her shield in front of her to guard against the beast. She felt the recoil when it hammered against her barricade and slumped away.  
  
Her mage-light reappeared and she saw her adversary for the first time: A pale and clear-skinned creature resembling a cross between a worm and a lizard. It had a wedge-shaped, crested head, faceted milky pink eyes, and its muscular tail wiggled to propel itself across the floor. With a whip like that, it was no wonder it'd leapt from the ground to quickly- this creature was clearly built for digging and most likely lived underground. And that's certainly a lot for a single five-year-old to deduce.  
  
She thought she knew what this creature was... she was positive she'd seen it in pictures... but the name taunted her. If only she could remember-it might trigger the memory of some of her father's briefing on the bestiary of Hyrule. It was a larvae of some kind... what creature looked like a twisted land-borne tadpole after hatching? No time, no time! She almost forgot to dodge when the baby lunged at her.  
  
Incidentally she leapt right up the path she'd fallen down-its sheer slickness told her that. A difficult climb to be sure, but if she backed up slowly she could make it. One little baby step at a time... the earth-tadpole seemed almost afraid to follow... she grinned in a bout of victorious smugness as the whimpering little snake dove headfirst back into the sand.  
  
"Ha ha! That's right, and don't you forget it, you slimy little-"  
  
She backed up into a wall of solid rock.  
  
She was so taken by surprised that she lost her footing and slid down into the crumbly cavern again, green orb pulsing wildly in an attempt to follow her head. She was tempted to cry. But a ray of hope that almost destroyed the wall as it was wafted down to her ears, causing them to tremble even more than the reptile's scratching had! "Posie! Is that you?"  
  
A smile that almost outshone the mage-light swum her face. "Daddy! Daddy, it's me! I'm OK! I'm down here!" She jumped up and waved her arms, even though Link couldn't see her.  
  
"Elaine and I are having a little trouble with the rocks! We don't want to bomb it because we don't want to hurt you, but the going by hand is awfully slow! Can you hold on down in there?"  
  
"Yes! Yes! I can hold on as long as you can keep digging!"  
  
"OK! We'll have you out as fast as we can!"  
  
Things were finally starting to look up. Link and Elaine were burrowing to her slowly but steadily, she had her magic flame, and best of all she'd frightened off that horrible sea-green thing.  
  
Well, two out of three wasn't terrible...  
  
"Not you agaiiiiin!" she wailed when a blow from the side sent her crumbling. She flung out her arms to brace herself, not really necessary when the ground was so airy, but a reflex anyway. This time it didn't just draw back after the first blow, it leapt on top of her and began to jump like it was using her for a trampoline. Summing up as much of her strength as she could, she cracked upward like a whip and flung the surprised creature back a few inches. She attempted to sprint through the soft earth again, doing her best to stay ahead. How long would she have to hold out like this? Please hurry, she sent a mental message to her busy comrades.  
  
For a good ten minutes, it must have been, she dodged and parried and blocked. She'd learned now the ways in which the creature attacked, and how each was best avoided. The jumps were easy to guard against with her shield, she could quickly bound away from its whipping tail, and if it put chase too quickly, it didn't appear to like getting earth in its eyes. Was "See my dust" a greater insult than eating it? The point was, though, she knew its every trick. There was nothing it could pull that she couldn't counter.  
  
Or so she thought...  
  
It was busy, for a moment, shaking sand out of its eyes when Posie stopped to rest. It was a safe bet it was preoccupied in clearing its line of sight, so, after what had been another tiring lap around the room, she stopped and took a few deep breaths.  
  
"Posie," she sighed to herself, "I reckon that if you tire yourself out now, then you're not fit for the rest of this venture." She sighed. "After all, this can't possibly be the worst it'll get. You've heard about some of those monsters... Gleeoks as big as houses, mobs of Gels a mile wide, big thick-skinned Dodongos with mouths full of..."  
  
That was when it hit her... and it bit her. The snake sunk its undeveloped(but still painful) fangs into her leg, and the bolt of realization bit into her brain. A Dodongo. A baby Dodongo! That's what it was! Dodongos were like frogs-after hatching they lived underground until they grew legs and could breathe fire, then they stuck to their caves and eventually migrated to lava pits after getting their second pair of limbs. It was all coming back, and rather quickly at that-but there was something about this juvenile Dodongos that she just didn't seem to be remembering...  
  
She shrieked as she shook the beast from her leg, and limped over away from it. She sat down in the dirt and checked the wound-small, shallow, nothing major punctured. Still, it'd be a hindrance. She couldn't run anymore. Not until she got out of here and slapped on some of Saria's salve, anyway; that would close up the lesion and take away a lot of the pain with its magic. Small medical miracle, that stuff was, one of her most common and simplest mixes, and Posie was without it. She could be fairly positive she'd inherited some of her mother's talent for straight healing, but you couldn't just summon any sort of magic you wanted by snapping your fingers. It took months of practice just to master a single spell. What options were left to her?  
  
She knew, of course, but she tried not to think about it. She hadn't been given that sword because she'd been any better at practice than usual as of late, but simply because it was a rough world out here(and boy, was she learning it the hard way) and you couldn't always defend yourself with a twig or a stone. There was nothing in this hollow that she could even throw at the Dodongo, and she'd lent her bow to Elaine. Thankfully. She didn't want any excuse to have to gore its insides out. She wanted to be as humane as possible... despite her reluctance to listen, she took her father's words very gravely, only wanting to wield the sword when it was really, truly, most desperate. Besides, there were plenty of things she wanted to see now more than Dodongo blood... Link and Elaine's faces, for instance...  
  
The Dodongo beat into her from the side, and she could feel her ankle twist most uncomfortably as she rocketed to the left. She groaned-now she would need a liberal application of bruise balm as well as bleeding salve on that leg. She wouldn't say no to just chugging a Dragon Potion and letting all the damage just fade away. But there wouldn't be any Dragon Potion; despite its astounding healing properties it made folks(her, in particular) incredibly sleepy. And there was no place for extreme drowsiness during an adventure, in the middle of the day... she was feeling rather tired now, anyway... she was being clobbered far too well... she had to stand and fight, there was nothing more left...  
  
There was a ringing as the sword flew from her back and, with a lightning-fast swipe, the blade tasted flesh for the first time.  
  
Droplets of a thick, gooey purple liquid splashed over her from the gash, acrid and hot and singeing the red Goron tunic she wore. Instantly she recoiled from the abhorrence of what she'd done. The thing squealed in panic and pain, twisting and knotting every heartstring Posie owned. How very unlike her, that last outburst had been! She was a loathsome murderer now... but now that it writhed in agony, Posie knew she had to put the Dodongo out of its misery...  
  
Why did I have to pick such a grisly occupation, she asked herself? Why, why, why? The "injustice" of it all sickened her, even if it had been about to KO her in the first place. She had a sharp, dangerous stick and it didn't. Rage burned in its eyes now as, painfully limping, she approached- rage such as a sort she'd only seen once before in any eyes. About a year ago it had been, back before she'd started attending real school and was at a daycare in Hyrule Castle Town with Elaine. The man who looked after all of the children had been reading through an encyclopedia, heaven knows why, but nevertheless one kid managed to knock it off his table. It fell open, and when Elaine had turned it over, there lay upon the page a horrible, horrible picture of the cruelest face Posie had ever laid eyes on. Sunken, slitted eyes, rimmed in greasy fur and crowned by thorny horns, balancing on a hog's nose above a pit bull's jowls. Fangs as long and sharp as daggers rose from that black hole of a mouth, opened in a roar of triumph.  
  
It had frightened her, but she'd thought nothing of it until that creature appeared in her dreams. She had been wandering alone at night, trekking a foggy, deserted moor, wandering until a pair of voices caught her attention and she ducked into the nearest bush. She'd spotted two dumpy little figures running around a pile of something white, chanting arcane phrases and passing something small and blue between them. While one spoke the spell, the other played a few notes of an unusual riff, and slowly the dust hill formed itself with a strange clicking: First, they stacked into bones, high, stark and white, into a rough-chiseled skeleton... then, sickly pink organs and muscles puffed into being and started to pulse... the thick, mottled gray and scabby skin slushed over it from the ground up... and there was the terrible thing, bald and weak, but those eyes were as cold as ever. She'd woken up then in fright and ran to her mother, who comforted her with: "There now, sweetie, it was only a dream. It's just a bunch of nonsense your brain puts together! Now, go to sleep, and don't worry about any ten-foot zombies. Your father and I are MORE than a match for anything you'll find in this forest."  
  
It was funny, as she'd never told her mother about having seen the thing in the book beforehand. Perhaps if she had, Saria would have become more worried... for any Hylean with even the smallest knowledge would become worried if a four-year-old who had never even heard the word "Ganon" saw the former Evil King rising from his ashes in a dream. Even though she knew his image now, from every story Link had told her, she didn't feel the dream to be especially significant. Just the frightened subconscious ramblings of her younger self. Still, she thought of those eyes just now, and began to wonder...  
  
That Dodongo still had some leap left in it, and it lunged at her. She jumped back and started to skitter in reverse. Back up the slope... oh, it was really angry now. It was following her... She waggled her sword in front of its face, but it wasn't discouraged. It snapped at the tip of the knife, missing a clamp down but getting its left cheek ripped open for its risk. Posie's stomach did a double take, but she really had to put the poor thing down. It was cruel to kill it, but it was even crueler to let it suffer. She was backed up against the wall now; it was as good a time as any to strike the finishing blow. Tired from loss of blood, the Dodongo waggled up but slumped down at her feet, panting heavily. It would die soon regardless of what she did now, but best make it quick for the poor thing, whose lungs seemed to be clogging up with the blood it inhaled from its face wound as it gasped. I'm going to be a disturbed child later on, I just know it, she thought, but with a heavy soul she grasped her hilt in both hands and knelt her forehead in it, silently wishing for the Goddesses to accept this little thing somewhere in the Sacred Realm-  
  
Flinging her head away the instant she started the dive, she plunged the filthy weapon into the distressed animal, driving into its heart. For what was almost four seconds, only one pair of lungs huffed into the now almost silence.  
  
Without warning Link felt a blast of steaming energy plug into his chest, and he and Elaine flew back several yards, most of the rock becoming airborne with them. An especially pungent surge of sulfur gas hit them full in the face, and Link felt his arms becoming smattered with little flecks of yellow ash.(Of course, it was not the fact that the pieces were yellow that he felt, simply their being there, as no human the author personally knows of is capable of feeling color through their skin.) Elaine choked on the particularly offensive pocket of air at the same time she fell to a stop on her back, meaning it was quite difficult for her to catch her breath for several seconds. She noticed Link shield his eyes with his arm and did the same; the explosion left the area with a stinging feeling. Somehow Link managed a sputtering mouthful of words: "What the heck was that?! Posie?"  
  
A significantly worse-for-the-wear child rolled over on her stomach just beneath the visible entrance to the Dodongo larvae's cavern, not too sure she had legs anymore, let alone a physical body at all. It had all happened in such a sudden fireburst and spontaneous tremor she wasn't too sure what all had happened... but from what she could gather, the creature, upon dying, had exploded, giving her a good singeing that would certainly leave a few marks later on and subsequently freeing her from her impoundment down below. It had done a surprisingly small amount of damage to her, nothing a bit of Red Potion wouldn't fix-a few minor burns on her limbs, nothing worse than first, not even second degree, and she still had all her hair. A normal child should have been seriously injured, perhaps slaughtered by that explosion. She'd escaped with barely a scratch! Perhaps more standing evidence that she wasn't exactly a normal child, and that someone, somewhere, was looking after her. Was Farore sweet on the heir to her piece? Did Nayru's love reach that far? Did Din have a cooler center than her outside suggested? Maybe it was a little bit of Saria's "natural"(and that's quite a literal phrase) endurance that had rubbed off on her. Then, of course, there was the fact that she was wearing a Goron Tunic...  
  
Neither Link nor Elaine had felt the incinerating surge that had given Posie most of her troubles, but both had gotten the kinetic punch. Link had numerous scratches salting his face, and Elaine seemed to be bearing a twisted wrist as well as numerous bruises. Navi was flying around chaotically, screaming "Hey hey HEY!" at the top of her lungs and zigzagging rapidly in front of the two's faces. The fairy magic of which she was possessed had caused the living bomb's pyrotechnics to glide right over her, without moving her and inch.  
  
Posie groaned. Yes, she was still in one piece. Yep, her travelling buddies looked awful punch-drunk. And of course, Navi was having greater kittens over it all than a politician that had just been handed a new bill awaiting ratification. She attempted to haul herself to her feet: bad plan, better wait until she'd had a couple swigs of potion before she tried walking again. Something on the front of her outfit stung intensely; at first she'd thought she'd landed on her sword, but another swing about revealed that all down the front of her borrowed tunic was a thick, clotted mass of acerbic fluid that flamed through a rip in the material but wasn't able to penetrate much of the outfit itself. She tried touching it, only to reel back in horror-it was hotter than a pan that had sat on the stove for half an hour. Her finger was flightily in her mouth in less than a second, and, for the record, the worst-burned part of her body.  
  
Speaking of her sword, where was that darned thing? Ahh, she spotted it just to her left, about three yards from where Link was looking about dazedly. It was covered in the same mauve gunk as her clothes were, or more accurately, coated in it. Barely a silver glimmer was left untouched, and that slime certainly hadn't been there earlier. It dawned on her that the sticky substance with the tendencies of napalm probably had come from the Dodongo, and the reason she was sludged over with its blood was due to her unfortunate business of thrashing it, though it was a grisly thought that she wished wouldn't occur to her. She was not particularly proud of her first battle; unlike many young warriors who would be gloating for weeks about their conquest over this meager lizard, she felt horrified that she had turned to her sword at all. She's always thought monsters were huge things she'd only be stabbing at to distract, not wriggling grubs her own size trying to impale her into the ground. She just wanted to get that awful thing back on her back where she wouldn't have to look at it, but to do that, Link had to notice that she was there and come...  
  
She chanced an outburst. "Daddy!"  
  
"Posie?" Link wheezed hoarsely, trying to expel the rest of the saffron cloud from his lungs. Then, more enthusiastically, when he saw her moping about in the acute gap, "Posie!" Despite all the little spikes of pain stroking along his muscles, he was thrown on his feet in and instant and crying maudlin words as he rushed to be near her.  
  
"Oh, Posie," he wept, embracing her tightly near his chest, "you look terrible. But I thought you'd look a lot worse. Thank every god that ever was that you're OK," and his voice was drowned out in a flood of oncoming blubbering. His eyes became glossy, though those crystalline drops didn't quite seem to have the nerve to spill over his eyelids. Those who knew him wouldn't be bothered by this anyway, as it really took quite a lot to get him this upset-subsequently, no one, not even Saria, could say that they'd honestly seen him cry before.  
  
"Daddy, Daddy," wailed Posie, "I didn't mean to! I'm sorry! I didn't want to kill it, but it was trying to hurt me, it bit me, it was jumping, and I couldn't stop it, and-oh Daddy, I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry..."  
  
Link had one hand behind her head and the other supporting the rest, rocking her gently back and forth in an attempt to calm her down. "It's OK. It's OK, my love, tell me everything that ails you and I promise I'll make it better."  
  
"Yeah! It's alright, Posie, we'll listen!" Quite achingly, Elaine had dragged herself over to Link, barely managing to catch her balance and currently clasping Link's leg for an extra bit of support. "What happened down there? And what was that explosion?"  
  
Posie took a few deep breaths and began. She told them both how, in a state of panic, she had fled into the crack for safety when the rocks fell. She hadn't known that it lead to an underground cave, where a baby Dodongo dug up out of the ground and began to leap at her. She dodged and blocked until it took a bite out of her leg, then she had to lash out at it with her maladroit sword techniques. When she had defeated it, it had blown up, releasing her and burning her at the same time. Many of the later descriptions were lachrymose, involving a good deal of self-loathing descriptions on how rash and barbarian she had been. Practicing to slay dangerous creatures was one thing, actually doing it was another...  
  
"Pshhhhh. It's alright." Link slicked back her bangs from her eyes, and looked into her salt-streaked face. "It was only a Dodongo. You did what you had to do, and by golly, you sounds like you did it very well. I had my doubts on how you would face off against some of these things as, well, you've always been a little bit wobbly when actually handling a sword, but if you could pull this off then you demand kudos, kid. Even if you did forget about the youngsters of 'em combusting after they get taken down... ahh, but thanks to Darunia, you're safe."  
  
"Thanks to Darunia, we're all safe," said Elaine. "It's because of his tunics that we're here in the first place."  
  
Link nodded. "Right you are, Elaine. And I think, to insure we stay safe, we'd better rest up a bit before we proceed. I don't think we're too far from the entrance to the pass, but better not chance it. We're well up near the brim of the volcano, and this is about the safest part of it."  
  
"I'll drink to that," buzzed Navi. "You all'd better too. Red Potion! Red Potion! Where is the Red Potion?"  
  
Everyone laughed, including Navi herself.  
  
  
  
"Confounded rock slide! It's all your fault for not aiming, Kotake!"  
  
"Shut your trap, Koume! This was your blasted idea in the first place! I don't see why we bothered. We should have just let the lava finish him off! 'No,' you said, 'He's protected against the lava,' you said! 'Finish him off with a shower of stone!' I don't know why I even bother to listen to you! You're the one that nearly dropped the urn!"  
  
"You've been sitting on your broom too long!" raged the ice witch Koume, a sickly looking hag with a hawk's nose, popping fish eyeballs and a putrid grin full of crooked yellow teeth. "Keep in mind that if you weren't listening to me, the older and more mature one, we'd still be officially dead! And we couldn't be out here, helping our poor baby." She spat the last in a caustically saccharine tone.  
  
"We're twins, you moron, we've had this discussion before!" razed back Kotake, her identical counterpart with wisps of fire enmeshed in her grizzled white hair. In her four-hundred-plus years of magic, she had learned to ignite and recede these at a fancy. "You cannot be older than me unless by a couple of minutes!"  
  
"And I am! By eleven!" The squat little figure would be hopping up and down now, were she not suspended hundreds of feet over a boiling lake of magma.  
  
"You turkey, it is I who is older!" Kotake's eyes were narrowed menacingly.  
  
"Codswallop! It's me, you retching pot-bellied pig!"  
  
"Nonsense, you filthy bilge rat!"  
  
"Yellow-livered toadstool!"  
  
"Slack-spined hack!"  
  
"CUUUUCCCCCCCCO!"  
  
"Oooh! Don't EVEN go there!" Kotake grasped her broom with her left hand, holding up her right and filling it full of fire. She flung the flame-ball at Koume, who did a quick nose dive to avoid it.  
  
"See? What did I tell you? You couldn't hit your way out of a paper bag!" Koume vaulted out her wand, knocking it on her broom's tail to get it to spark, then shot a few bolts of icicles at her sister.  
  
Kotake did a barrel roll. "Maybe not out of one, but I can thwack a 'paper bag' any day!" Completely abandoning all her spell work and witchly protocol(assuming such a thing existed), she gave Koume a solid whump on the head with her staff.  
  
"Look! You are a Cucco! I never saw such a short temper!" In a bizarre airborne game of Whap-A-Witch, the two were clubbing each other back and forth every other second. In the occasional chance when a little ember of a blaze or flicker of a blizzard puffed out of the scepters, one could witness such humorous occurrences as Koume being the one with a fiery hairdo or Kotake wearing a cold crystal headband. Eventually, when one of the witches was missing half of her cloak(lost in a mushroom-shaped poof) and the other had no feeling in almost the entire lower half of her body, Kotake lowered her pole.  
  
"Oh, what's the use? Fiduss, Koume, see where your little distractions has gotten us? I can't find the unfathomably blonde pain-in- the-butt anywhere down in that abysmal cove. Lucky thing we caught him off at the pass, though, ehh?" Kotake grinned dubiously, strains over her halitosis leaking out between the gaps in her mossy teeth. "He'll not find out what we're up too, this time. I have just the thing for dealing with our Little Red Riding Cap down there. I've been saving these two for something special." She let out a hideous cackle.  
  
"More of your creatures of the night and fire? Listen, all I felt when you sent out that last call was an itty bitty baby Dodongo, and that kicked the bucket awfully quick." Because they were much smaller than Link and their clothes blended in with their surroundings, neither harridan had taken notice of Posie or Elaine. The thought Link was trudging around in the volcano all by himself. Even when they'd set out their little Tektite bootlickers to capture and harass anyone unfortunate to be taking a hike up that day, it had been from far away. They hadn't even been expecting Link in the first place. "It better be something good this time, something that won't give up the ghost in less than a half hour. Or I'm getting my Yeti to do it."  
  
"Your Yeti wouldn't last five minutes in that environment and you know it, sister. And don't worry. This time it is good. A pair of Lizafos warriors, specially hand-trained by the Moblin King in all of the fencing arts. Those swords they carry are sharp. Ooh, won't it be grand, once we have our baby back, to present him with a lovely Link-kabob?"  
  
Koume gave back a sickly giggle. "You're making his mouth water just talking about it!" Under what remained of her old hood, one branched claw cuddled a heavy iron urn, malicious paint long chipped and faded. Jokingly she gave it a small jiggle, causing its loose contents to shift and hum.  
  
"Stop it! We can't loose a one of those, Koume. Keep it up, and I'll carry it." She glared back at her sister, one hand severely held behind her back and crooked over the jeweled hold of her wand. "I'm warning you..."  
  
"Oh al-riiiight!" The ice gorgon was tart. "I was just funning."  
  
"Save your fun for Link," cackled Kotake. "Boy, won't he be surprised!"  
  
  
  
The last few drops of florid pink elixir slipped out of sight down the neck of the bottle and into Link's throat, and he sighed and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. He turned to look at the girls-they looked almost completely fit now, having each chugged half a bottle of Red Potion apiece(which amounted to one whole bottle among them) and done away with a good amount of bruise balm and burn salve from their respective wooden tubs. You couldn't even begin to tell where a little lizard had clamped into Posie's calf half an hour before, and all that was left of Elaine's pummeling were a few stagnant yellowing marks among her otherwise unmarked self. (Save, of course, for her mocha-colored birthmark, which wasn't a birthmark at all... but ah, we'll get to all that soon.) Link himself had gotten a few scrapes and lesions, but a couple coats of the bleeding ointment and some bruise balm for himself had him looking as good as new. Or as close to new as he could ever look, anyway-there were scars cur deep into that flesh, scars that would never go away. Including one long, gruesome one on his left arm, residue from Ganon himself. It was the Minotaur demon's favorite method of disarming his opponents: cutting a long, deep slit along their dominant arm, causing them too much pain to use their weapon, and making them bleed even more fiercely if they tried. He was the only living person to bear that sort of tattoo, as he was the only person(other than Zelda) to ever come back from Ganon alive. Perhaps why he liked to wear long sleeved shirts under his tunic-so other's could view his mark.  
  
It was a funny group to look down upon-a warrior, a girl who though she was one, and a passive lass who seemed to serve no other purpose than to cheer, gall, and be cheerfully galvanizing. (She would serve her prospect as a thief, too, but that's yet another thing we must set aside for now.) But it was one steeped in what it had set out to do, so Link was feeling brave, Posie self-satisfied(now that some of her initial distress had worn off), and Elaine particularly prodding. They weren't too far from their destination now, as it were-though the last leg of their trip through the volcano was the most dangerous, as it involved shimmying down a crumbly, narrow slab of rock that, if swung over right, would drop off onto a little ledge leading into the cave-and if not, into the crimson sea. But of course, Link wasn't worried. They did have their tunics, after all, and the ghost of Link's father would be more than willing to let them paddle about in the magma.  
  
He'd set aside most of his own treatment to nurse the girls back to a flushing state, and as a consequence they were a good deal more lively than he at the time. They tugged at Link's legs, urging him forward. "Come on!" they rallied, Elaine making uncomfortable jerks at the kilt of his tunic, Posie at the fold-over part of his boots. "Let's go!"  
  
"Alright, kids," he laughed, "let's swallow our courage and tackle the wall." He shook his head and his bangs flung off of his forehead, previously glued there by sweat. He reached behind his neck and straightened the band holding the rest of his wild locks in a pony-tail, combing through a knot with his fingers and reaching to the pocket where his mismatched hat was being held. (In another quirk those games wouldn't have you believing, Link had no hats matching any of his tunics, red, blue or purplish white. Kokiri got quite angry if anyone stole their signature clothing style.)  
  
"I'll go first," offered Posie, the smallest, lightest and one would likely have the least trouble. "Show me the way." Link pointed off to the right, off a shelf that appeared to drop right off into the pit. The trail they needed to take was not directly connected to any large jetty they could safely rest on, nor were the jumps small. It was a fair sized jump from their cliff to the little lip, and a tricky move was required for the cave entrance. But of course, Posie wasn't frightened, because nothing fazed her. How very like a five-year-old for her to testify later that "That Dodongo wasn't so bad... I could have beaten it with my left hand!" An ironic statement, to be sure, so she'd see when it was all too late...  
  
She crept to the edge of the bluff, peeped over the escarpment to find her landing point, and readied herself. She clenched up her arms, swung them back and forth, and hurled herself over the trembling stone with a small yelp as she pawed at air for a moment and a smaller whuff when she managed to land on her feet without stumbling too greatly.  
  
She turned back, grinned and waved, and took a few steps backwards. The ground held staunch beneath her. Elaine went next, a bit floppier, like a volleyball that was only half inflated. She struck terra firma at an odd angle on her heel, and collapsed sideways too close to the rim for comfort. Posie's face blanked and her arms were out on impulse, but gingerly her friend pulled herself to her feet without much strain. Link very carefully eased himself down from the ledge, dangling a foot or so above the hold below. He released his grip and fell, but had overestimated the strength of the narrow strip of stone. Several brittle bits deteriorated, and he had to make quite quickly with his feet to safely stumble onward. There wasn't much to stumble into either; though wide enough for the girls to travel comfortably it was almost extreme enough to him that he had to walk like a person on a balance beam.  
  
Below, a few scraping sandstone shards knocked into the cranium of one of Kotake's Lizafos lackeys. A creature with acid green skin, a wedge-shaped head, piercing red eyes, and a heavily fleshy tail, it wielded a serpentine rusty dagger like many of the "Fos" clan and was clad in a rended leather vest. Its slimy pink gecko's tongue lashed out to lick the bruise, and it peered up in annoyance.  
  
"'Ey, loozzza," it hissed in its primitive accent at its partner, "Link izzz cum'n', get yuu tayzzz readeh."  
  
"Who yuuzzz call'n' a loozzza, buzzztar?" The Lizafos's partner and mate had a higher, scuffier voice, and her body was thinner and longer, making her resemble more a true lizard. Her throat clicked when she finished her sentence, and she spat on the ground in front of the male's feet. "Ah ayent gunna duu nut'n' fuu zzzum 'uul 'oo tinkzzz 'eezzz gunna push me 'urund."  
  
"Yu membehzzz wuh zzz' buzzzezzz sezzz," he glucked back. "Geh zzz' Link, mukem scream, mukem blud flu. Kill Link. Get hud, fuud fuu muster G'n'n wun 'ee buck."  
  
The female Lizafos seethed. "Ah nuu wuh buzzzezzz sezzz, buu Ah du wuh Ah wull," she replied.  
  
Their accentuation made them hard enough to understand at close range, and the fact that their grammar was often muddled made it worse. From far above, where Link and crew teetered between a fiery dive and a razor-edged path of cankered gravel, their voices were nothing more than the burble of lava as it bubbled up and burst on a vermilion-tongued surface. Their minds were too preoccupied as it were with staying straight, and not tripping over any number of flecks jutting out of the surface.  
  
Half of the sweat on Link's face wasn't from the heat. He was highly unwisely traveling in back. If he tripped, and he'd come very close on two occasions, it spelt doom for them all. Well, doom assuming Jeremiah Emilio Blade wasn't watching. Link's father had been hurled to a premature death when an old friend of his father's, now turned turncoat, bathed his lance in the flesh of Jerry's chest and shoved the burly young warrior into the hellpit from which there was no escape. Because the ashes of his bones rested here, so did his ghost, except for the Wild Spirit Night known as Halloween. Now the bereaved gentleman saw it his personal duty to be the saint of all those souls who took a dare with the volcano, and earning him a place in lore even in death.  
  
Surely old Miah B. wouldn't let Link die if he fell. Surely he knew the importance of those two children to his son, and would treat them with equal verity. And surely the man held open his phantom arms even now, ready to brace for the first to misplace a foot.  
  
Surely, Link thought pessimistically, they were all doomed.  
  
Posie, who could patter along with a decisive bit more of speed than the others, reached the dangerous overhang first. She waved her hands, stamped her feet, and did everything in her power to call the attention to her. She even dragged out her sword and waved it about, trying to pull in their faces with its glint, but it was still too submersed in (now dried) Dodongo blood to do much besides make the space that was her seem bigger. Link called out, "Hold your horses! We're coming!" and knelt down to a crawl to prepare himself for what he had to do. They needed to be careful, so Link had to go first and show his juvenile companions what was to be done.  
  
Link sat down and dangled his feet over the edge, Navi hovering nearby in her Navish way. She knew what lurked down in that red froth(she'd been there when Link learned Hyrule's second most famous hero had been his father) and knew they had little to fear, but was still uneasy. "Watch me, girls," he said, "and don't be afraid if you fall in. The Spirit of the Volcano lurks here, and will let you safely pass the lava." They clearly thought he was just saying that to make them feel less afraid of the loop they had to go through, but seemed at least a bit grateful for the encouragement.  
  
Link slipped himself down so he hung over the edge by his hands, kicking and swinging his feet to throw his weight over to the rock ledge bobbing below. He let out a sigh of relief, not knowing what awaited him ahead.  
  
One of the Lizafos snarled and dragged its partner into the cave they guarded, eavesdropping from around the ledge, ducking out of sight when Link looked their way. The female hissed, "Th's uuur bunty, yuu 'uul, nuu lezzz mukem bug fuu m'cey. Link-kabob."  
  
Her partner cackled hysterically. "Yuu loozzza, bu' yuu nuu ha- ha. Guud ha-ha p'son. Mukmee ha-ha muu uf'n."  
  
At that moment, Posie flung herself around and was caught by Link .  
  
"WUUUU?!?!" screeched the pair. "Bi'Link, Li'Link? Buzzezzz nuu sezzz th' be two 'vem! Wuu we gunna duu now?"  
  
Link set Posie down and captured Elaine as she clumsily came out of her fall.  
  
"'REE? 'REE? Th's nuu in jub duzzz'crip'n!"  
  
"Nuumine. 'Ree come, 'ree muzzzt kill! 'Ree muzzzt nuu gut 'nto cuvvv!"  
  
Far in front of the lizard warriors, Link sighed. "That wasn't so hard now, was it?"  
  
Elaine looked fine, but Posie, shaking fitfully, had her own opinion. "Speak for yourself!"  
  
Elaine shook her head, clicked her tongue, and looked back up at them. Or at least, she looked up at one of them. "It wasn't the most pleasant thing I've ever done, but, then again, I've never met a Goron, hiked a mountain, dived inside a volcano, or been in an avalanche before," she nodded, shrugging her shoulders. "Really, Posie," and she looked at the pixie of a child, "I don't know what the state of my life would be if I'd never met you. Probably really really boring." Both of them smirked.  
  
"Speak for yourself," she repeated. "I daresay you're weird enough in your own way, and you'll find a little bit of madness to cure even the most dull day. Linè rick?"  
  
Link looked at his daughter strangely while Elaine doubled over at the pair of nonsense words. "Indeed! Uh, just an inside joke, Mr. B," she crunched his eyes. "Maybe one day we'll explain it, ehh?"  
  
"Hyat feron iirip lawuasha ryu g'xor!"  
  
Elaine began to laugh again, but her face suddenly went tense and morbid, and she slowly gazed up, giving Posie a dark look.  
  
"What? I'm just sayin'..."  
  
Curtly Elaine turned around, saying softly(but seriously): "And I could say the same of the Great Deku Sprout and you." She turned her nose up and held her arms down stiffly, and was the first to be sauntering at the cave extension.  
  
Posie made the face of one offered a particularly repugnant piece of sulfur crystal by a Goron, curling her hands into claws. A move that couldn't have been too happily welcomed by her fingers, wrapped in stiff gauntlets. "Look, uhh, I'm really sorry about that remark... I wasn't thinking... really... please..." She dashed up, profusely apologizing.  
  
Elaine snuffled. "That was really crude, Posie-"-she crossed her arms-"-but I suppose it doesn't matter. You do kinda have a point..." She gazed aimlessly to the side. "Lawu-lawu probably isn't ever coming back. I envy you for your... Lawu-lawu, you know-I know it's so selfish though, and... maybe I'm a bit to blame for being overly touchy."  
  
"It's OK." Posie would've patted her friend on the back were she comfortably able to reach high enough, but settled for a simple leg squeeze. "You too, my best bud forever," replied Elaine, and she actually lifted her almost a foot off the ground. She was, after all, only as tall as a doll. She still weighed a good deal heavier, but it wasn't any great task.  
  
Link mumbled, confused. "Heme heme heh? All this over a bunch of garbled nonsense? Is this part of the joke?"  
  
Elaine set Posie down. "Not quite nonsense, katen giri sensei. My dad's bilingual, from his old job, and he kinda-well-taught me how to speak the Lingo of the people who call themselves the Linguists. And I, in turn, passed the knowledge on to my good pal, Posie. She's still in- training, of course, but I daresay she's quite adept in it now! Yes?"  
  
"Zum," said Posie.  
  
"Whatever," groaned Link. "Well, at least if we happen to meet any Linguists, whoever they are, I know who to turn to."  
  
"Not likely," said Elaine, swinging her arms back and forth with her gaping stride. "They live in a very specific area and rarely ever leave it, and our route skirts around it quite nicely if I do say so myself. Luckily too-they're, uh, not too happy about getting visitors."  
  
"KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"  
  
Something lime flew past Elaine. "What was that?!" she shrieked, just as another voice howled, "AMMBUUUUUUUUZZZ!"  
  
Link dived down and did a forward roll, the spiky ground a headache on his skull. The ugly chartreuse blurs paused for a moment, standing relative to each other behind the girls, mouths agape and tongues flickering to taste the air as their sharp, slitted eyes watched Link tumble ahead of them. Posie's brain didn't stall this time. "Lizafos!" she whined, and grabbed a handful of Elaine's garments and accidentally tugged her down as she attempted to urge her forward, doing more damage than good.  
  
On her sleek, raptor legs, agile and made for amazing leaps and sprints, the female bounded over the fallen duo and made straight for Link, whose hand was already making for his sword. She tried to stab him in the back, a wound sure to be fatal with a Lizafos's deadly accuracy, but Link had his lightning-quick feet and reflexes. Steel clamored on rusty steel, sparks flowing freely from the gash ripped in the air. Blades echoed like thunder in the cavernous space and every crash was accompanied by a necessary explosion of lightning. Posie knew how to defend herself, but this was fencing at its finest, between a creature whose very instincts were that of war, and the greatest knight known to Ebridane. The male dragon stepped forward, sprawled over an awestruck Posie and Elaine, heckling Link and cheering his mate.  
  
"Hey!" snarled Posie when the Lizafos called Link a string of particularly nasty names, some that would put a sailor to shame. "That's my daddy you're talking about!" She slung her sword at the creature's ankles, inwardly regretting her second battle today. Yet lessons had to be taught to foul beasts who even when their was no soap at hand to wash their mouths out with.  
  
Elaine sensed that she was now in a perilous position and scrambled upward, feinting deeper inward. Posie wanted to shout at her for leaving her to deal with the scaly fiend alone, and chanced a peer into the cave as she circled around the Lizafos and between his legs, when she saw- Elaine, grinning madly with a silken scabbard in her hands, its rusted(but still formidable) dagger glinting out just slightly. The little thief! It was another glorious inside joke. The look on the thing's face when it found its weapon missing!  
  
"Hey! Lizard lips! Looking for this?"  
  
It was a precious look indeed; half ogle, half gasp, part rage sat too long on percolate. It turned furiously on Posie, who still fought with her own weapon(now tinged even sicker with red blood-red was all too human a color), then to Elaine, who didn't notice the pair of rubies reaming her soul. The demon's heart locked on to the gilded sheath the little girl was waving about so recklessly, and dived.  
  
Displaying lightning reflexes Posie certainly never knew she had, Elaine whipped out the knife as quick as the Lizafos itself might, and parried to the left. The lizard tried to grasp her in a deadly embrace, and, for its trouble, got a knick in its shoulder. It cursed loudly and saltily, and Posie made a face. If it wasn't a silly one. "Go on, Elaine!" she shouted. "Let's see you fight!"  
  
Elaine's long limbs served more of a purpose than simply making her look like a rainforest monkey. She could whirl and dance past rending claws in the fashion of a Gerudo ducking behind her double blades. With her craftily stolen weapon, she would scamper around, waiting for just the right moment to strike. It would be when the creature stumbled... there! He fell flat on his face, long, lizardy snout digging in dust. Then she would dash up and make a somewhat struggling cut into his scales. She, too, fell short on courage when it came to battle. Odd, though it might seem natural of what of her was Hylean, the part of her that wasn't was known for the way its members learned war from an early age.  
  
The gash she had made was into his back, long and deep. As deep as she had dared to go. The back of his jacket was frayed and ugly, precious crimson fluid sinking into the fibers. He twitched spasmodically-had his spinal cord been hit? Elaine couldn't bear the thought of having killed the creature, especially not by damaging his nerves. She had seen those before, who had had similar injuries occur to them-it was an ugly sight, the way whole sections of their body were seized up an paralyzed. Even uglier was the way he had taken the blow-not a sound, not even a whimper. He just laid there, in the dust.  
  
Apparently his partner was not so well at keeping mum. A shriek echoed throughout the crater, and the female Lizafos keeled over and slumped to her knees, taloned hand plastered over a dripping wound in her stomach. She looked up at Link, his face wholly serious and cold, and whispered: "'Ave merzzzy..."  
  
His upper lip twitched. Posie felt as if she were staring into the face of a complete stranger. In a monotonous, chilling voice, he drawled, "I may spare you and your partner if you tell us something." He took a heavy breath. "Who sent you here?"  
  
"'T-t-twazzz T-T-Twinrova..." hissed the male, ground around him a sticky fire color. "Pleezzz, ivvv yuu 'ave any kindnezzz 'n yuu 'art, keel uzzz... 'uut uzzz uut ovvv uur mizzz'ry..."  
  
Link shook his head. "No. Death is too good for you. I will give you medicine-bandage your wounds, rest as long as you need too, then get far away from Hyrule, and never return to Twinrova. Do you understand?"  
  
The female nodded. The male gave a cough that might have been a highly slurred "Yes."  
  
"And tell me-what is Twinrova doing?"  
  
"We 'uunezz'ly dunno," gurgled the male. His tone was earnest.  
  
"Fine." Link knelt down and said in the same voice, to both girls, "Help me find the right poultices." Noting that his temper was particularly high, they meekly shuffled over as he set down his pack and rummaged inside to find a container of the proper herbs. Posie unearthed the jar, and Link handed it to the Lizafos in front of him. She graciously took it with her spare claw and set it down, while Elaine gave her a roll of gauze.  
  
"We weel nev'r fuuget yuur grayzzz," said the female constrictedly. "Yuu 'ave sayved uzzz frum death 'nd pain. Yuu are truly great..."  
  
"Just shut up," Link growled. "I'm not in a good mood. You need help with that or what?" Angrily he offered his services, to the beast who was struggling to apply the paste to the bleed in her gut.  
  
While he helped her fix her problems, her partner turned his clouding eye up to Elaine. Link would have to hurry, there was not much life left in the Lizafos now. "Yuu fight well," he sighed to her. "Yuu are queek uzzz a Leever, 'nd yuu are wily uzzz a Dud 'And," he purled.  
  
Elaine was a little muddled when her mind managed to churn out what he was saying in Hylean. Was that supposed to be a compliment? "Ummm... thanks. I guess that's a good thing..."  
  
"Pleezzz, keep my weeponnn... yuu uuzzz eet better 'n ah deed..." He began to pant.  
  
"Uhh, hey, Mr. B... uhh, we kinda have a situation here? This guy's almost dead!"  
  
Link tore off the last strap from his roll of gauze, leaving the first 'Fos perfectly patched. "Coming!" he shouted, a much sweeter and softened hark. Without the weight of his pack he rose quicker, hurrying over to the failing creature and hastily starting to pour a patching potion into the gap in his back. "I'm afraid I'm no medic, or member of the Forest Guild," he told him, "but this is the best I can do. This will help heal the wound, as well as drive out microbes and glue the skin together so it can grow together again. It's part magic, part good old fashioned ointment, so you'll be in good hands. Roll over, if you can."  
  
Painfully the Lizafos curled over on his side. Link laid down the bandage, then, with continuing help from the dragon, wrapped up the creature's gash almost entirely. A small metal clasp kept the dressing in place, and the creature was surprised at how much better he felt. He even attempted to stand up, with his partner supporting him on the side.  
  
"Garn 'nd Ah tank yuu, tank yuu we duu. We 'member, ah'ways." And with that, the two of them began to limp off, chugging up the slope.  
  
Link seemed satisfied and proud with himself. He got up and brushed his hands together, then gazed eagerly into the cave. "Glad this leg of our journey's over, aren't you, girls? Come on, we have Ruto's Cave to conquer!"  
  
"Yeah!" they cried back.  
  
  
  
High above...  
  
"YOU IDIOT!" squawked Koume. "YOUR LIZAFOS LET HIM GET AWAY!" She was taking her chances with her broom, balancing upon it and literally hopping mad. The aged wood shuddered every time she thudded upon it. One stray gust of wind, and she was history.  
  
Kotake circled around her. "Don't worry! I anticipated this!"  
  
"What could you possibly do?"  
  
"Oh, just play around with the spells," she told her sister, letting her words fall like big dollops of syrup. "I placed a Dislocation in there, I did. Once he steps into it, he'll be whisked far away, from where he thinks he's going to someplace else entirely!"  
  
"Oh yeah?" she taunted, fists on her hips. "And what would this someplace be, precisely?"  
  
Kotake crowed evilly. Then, in a soft, cloying voice: "Why, to the Gerudo Valley, of course." 


	8. An Unexpected Ally

(Yet ANOTHER Author's Note: Author's notes are fun. Expect them to become semi-chapterly from now on. Because I love doing these darn things. What to say about this chapter? Well, probably that it's the most important chapter so far. And also the funniest, and closest to being rated PG-13 because of... uhh... XD Remember that hint-dropping thing? Well, aside from the fact that my birthday was about a week ago(as of the time I began to type this), now you can find out... the TRUTH! Yes, the truth about Elaine. Still not telling what the Twinrova sisters are up too, but really, is it all that hard to figure out?)  
  
(And yes, I KNOW they speak really grandiloquently for five-year-olds. It's part of their character, OK?)  
  
Spinning Slash, Chapter 8: An Unsuspected Ally  
  
"Oh, sh-fiduss."  
  
Posie muttered something to Elaine in her ear, and morbidly, with a look like deer staring into a pair of car headlights, she nodded. "Well, I guess I take that back, then."  
  
"How the he-ck did we end up here?!?!"  
  
The shock of ending up definitely miles from where he'd wanted to be, and in the fiery territory of the Gerudo, no less, was putting far too much stress on Link. One could not be a soldier for well on ten years an expect not to get a soldier's mouth, something Link did all in his power to suppress. But every once in a while, he'd loose control, and was now only barely managing to catch himself because of the young presence upon him. Why did he have the feeling he should have avoided that light? He knew it could only mean trouble. And it did! They'd practically emerged right in the heart of Gerudo activity, near a dividend of the larger river that cut the Gerudos' Canyon and obviously a fairly main water feed. He could almost be sure that metal fence on the opposite bank had a gate somewhere, and a guarded one at that. Fiduss, indeed.  
  
"I, er, can get us out of this! Don't panic! It is remediable!"  
  
Link slung around his pack to his front, putting a tremendous strain on one of his shoulders to look inside for a map. He pulled out a scroll bound in twine after tossing out various other eccentricities, bit apart the twine with his teeth while he flung his sack back on to his back, then spat out the dried vines and rolled apart the yellow roll.  
  
Link was mainly speaking to himself, as the girls were lost in their own conversation. Spoken mainly, as Link would have noticed had he any spare consciousness, in the Lingo. A useful tool it was, for getting under the nose of parents. Regardless, he said out loud, but softly, in case keen Gerudo ears were prying, "See?" His finger began to trace the map. "It's not as quick our original path, but it will do. All we have to do is find a way through the Haunted Wasteland... are the two of you listening to me at all?"  
  
They didn't respond, so they obviously weren't.  
  
Grr, bemoaned Link inwardly, those two never listen... "Hey! You guys! Haven't you heard my plan?"  
  
"Huh?" Posie looked up. "Oh, don't worry about it, Daddy, we've got an idea."  
  
"How?" Link scratched his head. "What do either of you know about this region of Hyrule?"  
  
"Plenty," came the doubled response.  
  
Navi, who couldn't resist the urge to cut her rivals down to size, scoffed. "Yeah! A load of urban legends and gossip. I'll bet you know all about how Gerudos make blood sacrifices too-"  
  
"Never did, never will," Elaine interrupted. "The misleading name given to the Spirit Temple, 'Goddess of the Sands,' has caused some people to think the Gerudos worship the beings within as deities. Which is false. They're as Goddess-fairing as the rest of the population, and are quite noble, for thieves. They limit their thievery to obscenely wealthy. And then only the adults. Never children."  
  
Navi's little mouth hung open quite visibly in shock. "Well, maybe a Gossip Stone blabbed to you how they come to the market place looking for-"  
  
"Wrong again," this time Posie. "They are strictly forbidden by Gerudo law to go looking for love in anyone outside of the Hundred-Year Prince, which is what they call their legendary boy born every century. Anyone among them who does so is condemned to either A, a life in prison, B, death, or C, demotion to Gerudo Scythebearer, and the permanent tattooing of their face in black sickles, to show that they are the Gerudo Grim, and flames, to represent how afterward they will burn in-well, you know." She pointed to the floor.  
  
Navi looked impressed. "The first and second are true. But the last part sounds like some wild fabrication of your minds to me. You sure it's an accurate assessment?"  
  
Elaine smiled. "I'd bet my name on everything she told being true."  
  
The fairy sighed. "Have it your way," and she flew up to where Link was hastily trying to mark the route they should take in some of Saria's cold creams. Hardly what she'd intended it for. "Hey, you, were you aware that your daughter and her best friend have encyclopedic knowledge of Gerudo rites and customs?"  
  
Link was busy trying to erase a deadly smudge with yet another white-floured finger, and barely made sense of it. "Wuh?"  
  
She gave a canine growl. "Forget it. Let's just get on..."  
  
"I've said it once today and I'll say it again." Link re-rolled the map and stuck it over his head, into a gap in his packings. "How? It's not like we can just walk up there and ask to go through!"  
  
"You still have your Membership Card, don't you?"  
  
"No! You expect me to keep a relic giving me ties to them?" He pointed across the river.  
  
"Hmmm," mumbled Navi, digesting Link's precise point, "I suppose you've got something there. Maybe there's a way to sneak in..."  
  
"Don't hold your breath," said Elaine with a flourish of sarcasm and a flick of her hand at Navi. "Gerudo put guards around ev-ry- thing. You'd have to be either extremely well learned in their fort to find a breach in their defenses, or a really lucky son-of-a-gun. Luckily, we have some of both, but I don't think it's going to be enough for a complex stealth attack."  
  
"Well then, miss Gerudo Expert, what do you propose we do, then?"  
  
"Pssh! You must really be desperate! You're actually listening to her?"  
  
"Shut up, Navi," bit Elaine before proceeding. "Hmm, well, I'd say our best chances would be worming out way past one of the guards, snaking through their fortress, and making a quick scramble over the gate blocking off the Haunted Wasteland. Sound good?"  
  
"Well, that's all fine and dandy, Elaine, but how do we get through the Wasteland after that? The sandstorms there blow 24/7! Can't see a thing! Can't tell if you're walking past a crate, or stepping over a rock, or sinking into a pit of quicksand..."  
  
"Hey! Hey!" checked Posie. "I know! Use your truth-lensy- thingy!"  
  
"No can do, kid," he clicked his tongue, "didn't think we'd be needing that so I left it at home. Good idea, though. I think we'd best consider the immediate situation-how the heck do we get through the guards, presuming there are any?"  
  
"Trust me, there will be," said Elaine in a way both positive and negative. "If it belongs to the Gerudos, no matter how paltry it is, they'll make sure no one gets their grimy paws on it. I don't think bribery will work all that well-what is it, Posie? Don't bug me, I'm plotting revenge."  
  
Link couldn't fathom what on earth she could mean by that, but at least Elaine would pause her rambling to see what Posie was tugging the seem of her dress for. The little girl hopped up excitedly and pointed to a lumpy mass covered in an oily rag near a particularly rocky part of the riverbank. Elaine's face fell to slightly expressionless as she dashed up to see what lay hidden beneath the gray-brown cloth, but stopped and leered evilly, rubbing her hands together when she saw something creased, billowy and near-metallic purple peek out beneath it.  
  
"What?" asked Link.  
  
******************************  
  
"The next time I ask you girls a question, please don't answer me."  
  
No, not even Ganon could make things worse right now, Link was convinced. He'd promised himself he'd do anything to recover the Sword of Obedience, but now he wished he'd at least considered Gerudos beforehand and discreetly made a note against cross-dressing.  
  
Some old Gerudo maid had been out doing her sisters' laundry that morning and left it by the river to dry; just their lucky day it was in all sizes-from Posie-doll to Elaine-child and even Link-adult. However, it was also made for someone with a painfully tiny waist, and he could just about sympathize for women and their corsets as he attempted to button the lavender blouse that was the lower half of the complicated Gerudo attire. He couldn't just leave it open. Women did not have six-packs. The fancily embroidered vest wasn't much of a good fit either-it stretched uncomfortably, impaled upon his pointy shoulders. And he didn't even want to start upon the harem pants. His feet were much too wide for the curly- toed Gerudo slippers, and then there was the matter of his face...  
  
There was no effectiveness in trying to make them look like true Gerudos, Elaine pointedly noted as Posie tightened the waist sash that came with her outfit. Even with the sunburns they were all patchworked with, there was no chance of their skin ever being dark enough to pass enough for the rich mocha of Gerudo skin. And they had nothing of which to dye their hair red with, unless they wanted to streak their swords through it, an idea which appealed to none of them. And then there was turning Link into a convincing woman-he had to use the black river mud mixed with burn salve for mascara, he actually bit his own lips to redden them, and then there was the fact that, Posie pointed out giggling, he was far too flat chested. Link refused to do anything about this, and Elaine rebutted with the fact he had no choice. Embarrassed beyond belief, he discreetly waded up some bandages and, face a brilliant red, completed his outfit. It looked a little lumpy to be sure, but it would have to suffice. Their typical clothes he stuffed in his backpack with the rest of their materials.  
  
Link couldn't help but notice, once the girls emerged from the cave finishing together their outfits, the individual build of each. He was surprised how well the Gerudo clothes fit Elaine. With her long arms and legs, sloping shoulders, upward-scything nose so contrary to Randy's, and limber build, one might have thought her long-missing mother was a Gerudo. Even if everyone knew she had his face, it was interesting to see that Posie had much more of her mother in her body. Though it couldn't be said of her now, when Saria was a Kokiri she'd had large, glove-like hands, a round, tubular torso, and those pudgy limbs of Posie's. He never really realized how much in their appearances he'd taken for granted before now.  
  
"Alright," he began in his normal baritone, then quickly shifted to a practice falsetto, "I mean, alright, we've got the looks, now what's our story?"  
  
"Elaine and I have already got it covered," Posie told Link. "We're sisters, the three of us, from a noble family. But we're tired of all the nobility and want to let our bad-girl sides free. Can we all agree to that?"  
  
"I don't know... are you sure they'll believe us?"  
  
"If we can prove we truly want to be Gerudos," said Elaine. "But that means we have to know everything about them, or at least act like we do. We have to present our story in Gerudo language. Mr. B, since you're the oldest, you'll have to do the talking. But don't worry. I can tell you exactly what to say."  
  
"And presently, just how exactly do you know?"  
  
"I have my ways," she said enigmatically. "Anyway, we have our code names. I'm Kimiria, Pose is Ludores, and you're going to be Linèrick. Sounds like 'limerick,' only with an N. OK?"  
  
"Oh... kay." Link nodded, a bit unsure. "What do I have to say to this guard person if they stop us."  
  
"Alright," began Elaine, "Here's what you say-make an effort to remember this, or we're going to look totally false-Mayen uuthor Linguists-Greetings fellow Gerudos-kest ryu te fenum.-We come in peace. Hexo quwen Linèrick, thess ner Ludores chirrn Kimiria.-I am Linèrick, these are Ludores and Kimiria. Kest garn moki bsy iirip pallon.-We wish to join your camp. Do you have that much so far?"  
  
"Mayen uuthor Linguists-wha?"  
  
Elaine hung her headed and "Tut tut"-ed Link under her breath. "Never mind, I'll tell them. Speaking Gerudo is as easy as breathing for me. It will look a bit weird, but they can't expect us to be perfect, can they?" She shrugged. "And we have to try and think of us by our Gerudo aliases. Although all Gerudos pick a regular name to go by outside of their lands, inside their fortress, they all go by their Gerudo names."  
  
"Do they?" Link only half earnestly questioned. "Do these names we're using mean anything, perchance? Something that might give them some outward perception of us?"  
  
"Yeah," said Posie. "See, Ludores here means 'Purple Flower.' I chose it for myself, since posies are purple flowers. Kimiria is 'Sun Child,' it's also Elaine's middle name. By no sheer coincidence, either, I might add, her-"-she coughed a word that was incomprehensible-"-chose it for her because of its Gerudo meaning."  
  
"And what about Linèrick?"  
  
Posie hacked again. "It, uh-it means 'Insanity is Punctual.'"  
  
"What?!?!" Link was indignant, reduced to a child not much older than they were. "How come you two get the cool names?"  
  
"Because we know what we're doing," Elaine told him. His face was sullen. She attempted to perk him up by saying, "Oh, don't worry about it! Just play by ear; go with the flow! They all talking in Hylean once you get inside, and then, nobody will give a darn. They probably won't even notice we're missing."  
  
Link fiddled with the hair hanging by his temple. He had let it down in an attempt to look more feminine. "Speak for yourselves, sisters!"  
  
"There's the spirit!" exclaimed Elaine. "Now, let's do this! L-P-E? Link, Posie and Elaine?"  
  
"Ahem!" Navi was harsh in her face. "How about L-P-E-N? Link, Posie, Elaine and Navi?"  
  
"Oh, we don't need you," Elaine told her. "In fact, you'd best hide in Mr. B's backpack. Gerudos have almost as little tolerance for fairies as they do for their arch-rivals, the Zora. They let the Great Fairy of Magic hang out near the Spirit Temple, but only because Nabooru makes them. So, yeah, go and flitter off and shut up and all that."  
  
"Humph." The light obliged, reluctantly. Slowly the humdrum song of her wings pattered away as she made herself scarce beneath a brown cloth fold. Link tittered. Seeing Navi getting told by a five-year-old was almost as satisfying as chasing after the flying mouth with a sword. Even the wind joined in with their merriment, and one could almost catch it muttering. Oddly, it seemed to be saying, "That makes this chapter significantly easier."  
  
"Nowwww... where to find this gate..." Link, despite his inexperience with inside Gerudo culture, was leading the way down the stream to scan the other side. Unlike his boots, which would have crunched in the congealing sand, the silky Gerudo slippers made no noise on the earth. Just the stealth way they were intended to. Swish-swish; his pants were awfully loud, though; legs scraping away against each other and muffled notes ringing out as the crimps collided. He tried to sight anything that might show them a guard, be it a crop of red hair, a gleam of mocha skin, or the flash of the blade stacked on a glaive.  
  
He had been meandering left and right as he sauntered, and nearly slipped and fell into the fast-racing water when he took a misstep onto the slick river rocks. He tried to avoid doing it, but he couldn't help it: As he was falling, he cried, "Woah!"  
  
"What was that?"  
  
Too late. He'd been caught just as he caught himself. A sharply accented voice accused from somewhere around a knot in the trickle. He had managed to dodge the embarrassment of voicing his presence with a splash, but his stray tongue had been a turncoat in its place. Three choruses of shifting pants pealed in a triangle around him; two softer from behind, and one much more swiftly to the northeast.  
  
Link's eyes drifted upward and saw the Gerudo guard sprinting toward them. She wore a traditional guard uniform, with off-white harem pants, a blue sleeveless blouse, and a flowing red scarf tied around her stomach. Her hair was cropped boyish short, and every inch of her face was embossed in green makeup. Her right hand was woven about a quarterstaff, its blunt yet hard and polished ends reflected in her reddish forehead jewel. It was set into a brass circlet, capping the entire dome of her cranium. She wore sandals instead of slippers; Link winced seeing red hot sand scrape into them. Her nails were painted the color of blood.  
  
She gave a nasty chuckle. "What has Rohmerla here, she supposes?" she asked sarcastically, laced with war-lust. She poised to pounce, wand held in a threatening gesture.  
  
Link looked into a chin view of her prickly face, mouth an "O" of surprise and eyes glassy with momentary panic. He tried to remember everything he'd been told to say-the door had been left open, information was fleeing in packs of dogs-  
  
"Stop," came the granite order to his rear. Of course, it had not been any command Link could understand, for it was spoken in Gerudo. But he knew the voice, and the speaker was surprising; it was Elaine. Even if her words were not to his mind, her emotion was not unlike his when he told a young trainee at the castle(or perhaps even Posie) just how to use a sword. Or a bow, or a Hookshot, or a hammer. It was like this desert facade was her element, and now she had returned to it.  
  
The Gerudo Rohmerla's tense tendons relaxed, and she stood up straight. She raised an eyebrow curiously and looked faintly amused. "And who are you to tell me what to do, little one?" The unfamiliar-sounding sentence went straight through one of Link's ears and out the other, but the children grasped it perfectly and just smiled even broader than they had been doing before. "I am Kimiria Telenor, these are my sisters Ludores and Linèrick, Guardmistress," the brown-haired one informed.  
  
"Hmmm. And where did you learn how to speak Gerudo? You're not one of us, I can see that clearly, and neither are your... 'sisters.'" She looked at Link doubtfully, rubbing her biceps with her sickled nails.  
  
"We observe," said Posie, whose grasp of the language was considerably more broken than Elaine's. As a result, her speech was gnarled and must have sounded funny to the ears of this sleek Rohmerla. "Learn for years, many, come. Telenor family big, rich, pampered. We are tired. We want to be Gerudo."  
  
Rohmerla scoffed. "All of you? We won't say no to ferreting away a few youngsters who take the time and effort to run away from home, but this one?" The butt of her staff whipped through the air with a frightening whoosh and came to rest just in front of Link's nose as he started to rise. He shrunk back, eyes crossed and focused on the rounded but deadly tip.  
  
He had understood those last words, for they were spoken in plain Hylean. "Umm, I-"-he coughed, his voice cracked-"-I had this idea in the first place! Yes, it was mine. Our father, uhh, he... was trying to get me to marry a man I had absolutely no interest in whatsoever! Yes, that's it! He was a horrible, horrible person, all he cared about was money! Why, if I ever get my hands on that sneaking, good for nothing, son of a-"  
  
"Oooooookay Linèrick-or are you Ludores? Ahh, screw it-we get the picture." She withdrew her weapon. Much to Link's confusion, for she had reverted back to gibing in her homeland tongue. "So, you all want to be Gerudos, do you? Well, you can speak the Lingo, so that's one in your favor. But what makes you all think you're cut out for this?"  
  
"We have Gerudo blood," said Elaine. "Our great-grandmother was one."  
  
"But that means you're also illegal according to Gerudo law," replied Rohmerla. "Gerudos are barred from having families outside the Gerudo blood. Your great-grandmother was probably an Undertaker."  
  
"If so, we proud," said Posie. "She still great-grandmother. We care not. Let us in."  
  
"Pu-shy! Douse your fires, small one," nodded the guard. "You've got to give me more than your word for me to let you past here. And even so, it's up to Lady Nabooru whether you stay or go. What else do you have to show that you are markable for membership in the Noble League of Desert Warrior Pirates?"  
  
"This," Elaine said in Hylean. The Guard took a step forward and used Link's head for a footrest, shoving his view into the boiling earth momentary. He heard a turning of cloth, but couldn't see much for Rohmerla's powerful leg above him. He heard a muted gasp and his face was free again, letting him swallow a few gulps of scathing, but much-needed air. He saw how that Gerudo was molded when she reversed-stunned, and pounded down into disbelief. In awe, she uttered(Gerudo again), "Well... I suppose... perhaps I was a bit quick to judge. But I had reason to doubt, I mean, of all three, only you-I'm truly sorry. I cannot make any promises, but I will do what I can... your names... please, one more time?" Mid- sentence, she reversed her dialect yet again. She seemed to be suspicious of Link's ability to comprehend even half of her words. He sighed with ease and started, but was quickly interrupted-  
  
"Kimiria, Sun Child."  
  
"Ludores, Purple Flower."  
  
"Errrm... Linèrick, Insanity is Punctual?"  
  
She was not reassured by Link's wondering at his own name.  
  
"Well, I'm Rohmerla: Music. And welcome to the fortress, much as I can guess. You picked a ripe time to run away from home. There's a rather hefty celebration going on in there."  
  
"Why?" asked Link.  
  
"Dunno," Rohmerla answered. "I don't think the Gerudos have practiced the same holiday more than three years in a row since, oh, 125 whereabouts..." She scoffed. "But who cares? A party is a party! I heard a couple of ladies say they were going out to find a few men to kidnap. Teasing them is so jolly, they make such funny noises when the wriggle..."  
  
Link gulped, rather unplacated by that statement.  
  
"Hey, hey, why the pale face? No need to be nervous, sister! I'm sure the girls will love ya!" She threw her arm around his back. "C'mon, I'll show you around. I have a bit of authority over some of the gals myself. I'll get you a room, then warm you up to the crowd... whaddiya say?" She tightened her half-embrace.  
  
Sure, sure, they'll love me alright. Once they find out who I really am.  
  
"Yes, Linèrick," he could hear Posie reassuring him, thankfully with an account he could comprehend, "There's no need to be fearful. They are our family now. Families love and trust each other; and they are also our new friends, and friends do the same. Don't they?"  
  
Link's chosen response would have been "Perhaps a bit too much, they do," but he didn't want to arouse suspicions in the guard or sever his faith in the plan his daughter and her ever-crafty friend had set. Instead, he sighed, pried Rohmerla's arm off his waist and looped it over his head, a mumbled a little. "You're right, trusted younger sibling, it is indeed what they do. And to think, age is supposed to bring wisdom!" Oh, how awfully cheesy that sounded. And false. "Trusted younger sibling?" "It is indeed what they do?" Was he reciting lines from some Shakespeare play gone horribly wrong? There was that Gerudo eyebrow again, arching beneath a stuffed curl of her short and bouncy hair. Link attempted to feign a girlish giggle to cover his vermilion face. He ended up squawking like a sick canary.  
  
Sardonic woe put a crimp in the side of the guard's face. She took a few steps back as Link stepped forward, kneeling beside to trap the approaching Elaine. "I'd steal a straightjacket for that one if I were you, kid," she hushed while pointing at the staggering lunk in front of her. (Whom she had fortunately failed to notice, when she grasped "her" midsection, that "she" had unusually well-molded abs for a woman.) "But, like they say, can't judge someone by their family... so maybe you and your little sis here will end up a bit more sane." Her terrible pun(and personal attack on her height) caused Posie-Ludores to "Uuuuhg" and throw up her hands in disgust.  
  
They were fast coming upon a slice of the stream, tied in a snarl by the Goddesses when They had formed the land of Ebridane eons ago. Slick, shiny smooth boulders, carved into almost perfect domes by the erosion of water, were scattered liberally here and there among this junction, nearly forming a natural dam not even the most muscled of beavers could have thrust into place. Those rocks were a little dented, too; centuries of wear from Gerudo feet leaping nimbly from stone to stone saw to that. It was clearly the only way to cross the river, or at least the closest. No matter how shallow it looked, anyone who tried to step into those hurricane-fast darting needles of icy water would instantly be felled and dragged down, down, down the brook's length.  
  
Rohmerla apparently expected them to know what to do, for wordlessly she skipped off the bank onto the first stone, then to the next to make her way across the bridge. Just as silently Elaine accepted her task, limbs in all their gangly being serving her well for balance and agility. Posie had to make larger bounds, but she could find her balance much better than the two before her, and in proportion to her body, her legs were much stronger than her friend or even the Gerudo's.  
  
Link, still so very lost, was naturally last. Tenaciously he tried to place a foot on the first boulder-and lost his footing immediately, his light slippers having zero traction whatsoever. He swung back his arms to shift his weight and mercifully landed on the solid earth, on his back. Rohmerla heard the thump and looked over her shoulder. "Yo, Blondie," she called to him, and Link winced, knowing very well that this was obviously meant as an insult, "are you coming or not?"  
  
"Come-"-oops, too low-"-Coming!" He foisted himself back up and attempted the rock again, even slower than before. He just barely managed to drag his other leg up upon it, standing straight up and near paralyzed, frigid liquid lashing at his ankles and soaking the frills of his outfit into clingy bunches of cloth.  
  
Even Posie was across the river now. "Da-Linèrick," she almost snarled impatiently, "we haven't got all day!"  
  
"Get your rear over here, sister!"  
  
Well, it was funny when it happened to Navi, at least. Hoping the guard wouldn't notice his unusually thick ankles, revealed by his wet pants, he made a large and tangled stride to the next boulder in the series.  
  
In order to nudge himself over the stream he had to keep his mind on everything except the foamy white water beneath him. Its tongues were icy in spite of the region's heat, and would have been a comfort were not the biting wind chilling it further. He tried to make himself laugh... tried to think of something amusing... his trip to that faraway kingdom, that was it. He'd stayed at that one inn for the night, and his roommate had told him in the morning... about the bubble coming out of his nose... sheer embarrassment, at the time, but now, a riot. But the mentality of memories and the physical battering of river water were extremely unbalanced, and he wore a painfully strained mouth until his feet were on firm land again.  
  
"I don't see how the three of you got across so quickly!" He hoped he sounded feminine enough phrasing that, he was too overcome with relief to pay much attention to how he acted out his disguise.  
  
"Well, sister, you're just not built like the rest of us ladies, for sure. Weaker, like a man."  
  
Ouch. That had hurt. But he had to keep from showing it in his face... good, Posie looked more offended than even he felt. Elaine had the tense look of someone restraining hysterics.  
  
"Oh, no need to be so morbid about it," Rohmerla remarked. "I was just funning! If you're gonna hang around us, get used to people pushing you around. Besides, nothing a few aerobics won't fix. Right? One, two, we'll have you in shape in no time. And you could use with a bit of muscle- building yourself, short stuff," she grinned, looking down her arm at the young warrior wannabe.  
  
"Put a sock in it," she retaliated. "What? Don't look so shocked. You said Gerudos were used to getting bullied, right?"  
  
"Yeah," mumbled the astounded guard, "but you usually don't expect it from the kidlings."  
  
"Oh, come on, gang, let's not get off on a bad foot!" The more and more he opened his mouth, Link was convinced, the more and more false he sounded. "Chin up! We've got to exist in harmony from now on, right?"  
  
All three of the genuine females rolled their eyeballs. Exasperated, Rohmerla said, "Oh, come on, let's just go inside."  
  
  
  
The more Link saw of the inside of this compound, the sicker he felt in the pit of his stomach. There was simply no way in all of humanity they were going to pull this off. He'd have a better chance if he were disguised as a barrel, and sneaking through a crumbling fortress! Actually, he'd done that once, and gotten away with it. Which was not a reassuring thought. The piercing green eyes of the Gerudo, staring at him and his companions as Rohmerla lead them through the grounds, pounded his hopes even further down. If there ever was a rare occasion on which he felt pessimistic about something, now would be it.  
  
The gate their guide had been protecting was as close to a "back door" to the Fortress of the thieves as their could be, poking itself into a smooth, gray brick wall with the courage of a lion. The quiet, empty passageway was bare, save a couple of crates set there to store provisions, but all around it was a thrum of white noise and activity. If he stared at it for too long, he might have started to swear the ox-skull wall hanging, above a flaky-looking door, was vibrating.  
  
Their head looked left and right, as if to avoid getting run over by someone suddenly sprinting the halls, and gazed back at those who blindly followed. She had asked them, "Alright, where do you ladies want me to take you first? You rather go to the heart of the action or your room first?"  
  
"You already managed to secure us a room?" awed Elaine.  
  
"Well, not exactly, no," she confirmed, "but believe me, you girls'll get it if you want it, by Goddesses. It's Nukira's room!"  
  
Link knew on the spot that he didn't like the way she'd spit out that last name, there. There was something of a decidedly bitter accent permeating it. Was it mockery? He'd always known that Gerudos were less that decent with their underlings, and he didn't know if he wanted that room if someone else was getting... wait a moment, what was he griping about? They weren't staying! They were going in and out. But it still wasn't fair...  
  
Get a hold of yourself! It's only a Gerudo! They're vile, seductive creatures, remember?  
  
But injustice was something even more noisome than they were.  
  
The room they entered after that was heavily crowed, and overhung with the smells of roast, sweat, and smoke. He was easily aware that not all the perspiration dripping off of him was strictly because of the Valley's natural temperature, either. The girls(the little ones) could easily duck underfoot, but he and Rohmerla had to shove their way through, and there were various parts of the group's anatomies bumping up against him that he'd rather not think about...  
  
He had meant to think it, but he ended up blurting out anyway, "Good Goddesses are we out yet?!?!"  
  
He recoiled the moment it left his lips, for the voice that spoke it was definitely not a lady's, but quite luckily for him it fell on deaf ears.  
  
Rohmerla carved a road for them that led to a weathered wooden table, around which was seated a posse of about four or five Gerudos apparently of Guard rank. It was near impossible to tell them apart even from their leader, for all wore the exact same loose-fitting yet hip- hugging clothes and had the same facial makeup. About the only visible differences obvious to Link was that some had tighter curls in their short locks. He tried to distinguish them by height-yet even their heads cut even. Yes, there was that Gerudo inbreeding, alright.  
  
"Yaow, Rommy," hailed one, spinning a goblet full of sloshing green liquid in her spindly fingers, "Is your shift finally done? Come and relax with us, sister, and chill your soul!"  
  
"No can do, Lai-Mae," she shook her head. "I just snagged myself a couple of new recruits and had to bring them to a group I can trust. I hope you'll be that group?"  
  
"We're down, sister," replied the one to the left of Lai-Mae. Her voice suggested that she might have a cold, or perhaps an allergy to the dust skirting over the barren desert lands. "Boy, does she look like a sorry catch!"  
  
"Them," corrected Rohmerla. She pointed down at the floor. The two sitting immediately in front of them swiveled round, and the three behind the bench leaned over the hard surface. A haze of chuckles broke loose almost instantly.  
  
"What?" asked a very cantankerous Posie, who was getting fed up with all the "short jokes" she'd heard today. "How'd you all like it if I stuffed you in a crusher and squeezed you down to my size, huh? HUH?"  
  
"Aww, how cute," mocked one, "the littlest one has the biggest mouth!"  
  
"Hey, you just leave my dau-sister alone!"  
  
"You can't speak! What 'choo talkin' bout, girl, what with them manly shoulders and all?"  
  
"Not all of us inherited out mother's graceful good looks!"  
  
Which really wasn't true. If you compared a photograph of Link's mom right before she had died with one of him now, you'd find that Link took after his mother in shape as much as he took after his father in face. And the same sort of situation applied to Posie, as well. But Link wasn't the least bit ashamed to say parents didn't bear any semblance to Gerudos, thank the Goddesses for that. If they did... ha, forget destiny, he'd never have been accepted as a knight, the Royal Protector, or even a citizen at all.  
  
"Yeah, but not all of us inherited our burly papa's, either."  
  
Link suddenly became very interested in his feet as his ears turned beet red, while the group of sentry buddies of Rohmerla's howled and hooted with laughter. "You go, Shaki!" said the one called Lai-Mae, playfully punching her friend on the shoulder.  
  
"Hey, hey, go easy on 'em!" The head of these hoodlums finally spoke up, patting the air with he hands in a "calm down" gesture. "They're new, after all. Listen, I have to get back to my post now, so see to it these guys don't get into too much trouble, OK? Get 'em some kinra cider, a bowl of hot xingyr, you know, the basics. And show them up to their room when they're done eating, alright?"  
  
"They're new, and they've already got a room?"  
  
Rohmerla clenched her hands and stamped her feet. "You idiots, you know what room I mean! And if that lurker tries to stop you-"  
  
"We know," they all replied in an eerie harmony. Simultaneously they drew their fingers across their throats and made a gut- wrenching noise.  
  
"Good. Ciao!" She gave a brief saluted and started to hustle back through the fog of her kin.  
  
Getting left with a bunch of rambunctious(and pugnacious) Gerudos was definitely the last thing Link wanted at that moment. Especially if one of one of the other ladies really did manage to secure an outside man for their "entertainment."  
  
"Goddesses, help me," he mumbled, feeling helpless, to himself.  
  
That table of ruin was doing an ominous-sounding group snicker. He daren't find out what they found so funny. He'd turned away for more reasons than to watch Rohmerla leave-oh, how he hated those looks Lai and her cronies shot him! It felt like they were staring lasers that burned off his ruse and left him standing bare and revealed in front of that entire encore of slime from the sands. Was the heat turning him delusional? He looked down and thought for a moment this nightmare had become a reality, but he blinked and all was right again. A cough below his waist made him swivel.  
  
"Uugh!" Elaine had covered he nose and mouth over with the collar of her suit. "They're barbecuing with leiba leaves!"  
  
Perhaps that explained his sudden hallucination. Every child in Ebridane knew from even the earliest age about leiba leaves. Rare imports from Kjurum, in the Derxelholmian Peninsula, they were even better than mesquite chips for adding flavor to the grill, but the smoke wafting from their cinders did a pretty trippy number on anyone who inhaled it. He was mused to wonder their rationale for cooking with them, and followed Elaine's suit. No, things were certainly not looking up. If Gerudos were bad when they weren't almost completely drugged...  
  
It was already starting to get to one of Lai-Mae's. Her pupils dilated, her eyes were bloodshot, her face was looking pale. She seemed to have lost control of one of her hands, and was spilling draughts of the green mixture in her goblet as she wobbled. The rest of her crew seemed to be taking it with less of a struggle-quite luckily one exposed to leiba effects for prolonged periods over time built up a resistance. No one he knew used them because of the danger involved, so he'd never had that experience. Only moderately slurred, Lai chuckled. "You'll get used to it, mark me. Don't be strangers... sit down... that's right... you look thirsty. Kinra cider?"  
  
Too much information! In the sense that it was a bit over the line of easy comprehension. And what in the name of Heaven and Hyrule was kinra cider?  
  
Gratefully, he didn't have to ask. Posie was kind enough to answer for him, however muffled her powerful(if not a bit sticky at times) voice was. Most likely trying to be impressive, she told Shaki, in almost fluent Gerudo: "Two glass. One goblet. Best kinra. Clear." She had to stand on the bench to be seen above the tabletop. Link drummed his fingers on the table, afraid again they were going to blast into another conversation he wouldn't be able to track.  
  
Elaine replied in a more sensible tongue. "Since when did you learn the distinction between clear and burdened kinra? Considering you've only ever seen one kind, I didn't think you were aware the other sort existed!"  
  
"I wasn't. But I figured that since the bottles of the stuff at your house are all marked 'Clear,' and I've had it with no ill effects, it must be safe. And honestly, I haven't ever heard of burdened kinra. But I think I can make a guess why they call it that." She pointed at the collapsing-no, make that now collapsed-body that had flopped down next to them. Her body heat was overwhelming. She hadn't been overdosed on the smoke wafting from the giant pit a beast of undetermined origin was roasting over-she was utterly drunk.  
  
Link was more than just a bit repulsed. Not to mention offended by the slightly alcoholic odor her living corpse was emitting. Hopefully discreetly, he disgustedly shoved her under the table headfirst. She was flung into the dust with a noise anything but inconspicuous. And her feet were still propped up.  
  
One of the four still standing put on a bitter crack between her blue-dusted lips. "Yes... well, you know, not all are as strong as us. Plenty of our troupe have... certain weaknesses... you will learn quickly not all our race are worthy of the place they hold."  
  
What a lovely and reassuring moment. They were so doomed.  
  
Lai herself left the table and merged into the throng, disappearing for about seven minutes and then squeezing out again with a large wooden chalice and a pair of yellow-crafted pieces of poor glassware suspended in her arms. They swam with some of the same potion that had KO'd the misfortunate girl sitting beside them, though it smelled quite different and was fairly obviously harmless. Like a bartender she slid them their respective cups, but Link just peered blankly into his. Was it safe? Dare he draw from it in faith? Well, Posie and that ever-surprising friend of hers accepted the drink and were slurping it down in gargantuan gulps, and suffered no ill effects. Almost with the air of someone taking a dare, he lifted the clumsy tumbler to his lips and took an experimental sip.  
  
"Arrrrg!" was about the easiest way he could sum up the flavorful maelstrom he'd poured into his mouth that instant. It was like taking a swig of undiluted lemon juice! He was sure his eyes were watering. And those kids were inhaling the stuff! Hmm, but despite the almost vile acid twang of it, it had a curious and satisfying flavor. Like a pure, high ocarina whistle distilled into a drop of zest. It satiated his mounting thirst adequately. But he'd best lap it up slowly, or else he'd put his tongue out of commission for a week.  
  
Stop grinning so smugly, you! The ringleader of this guard brigade was really starting to irk him. Every new discovery he made of this bizarre culture was like a terrific joke to her. It was always hard to tell the age of a Gerudo, for they didn't show the signs of the years much, but something told him she'd seen a fair share of newbies come and go. And they weren't usually in their early twenties, either.  
  
Elaine had already drained her glass, and despite having more in proportion to herself Posie was close at hand. How was that possible?! Did they not feel the atomic power of their senses gaining on them? It was almost disgusting. It would have hurt him to drink his cup as quickly as they did.  
  
"Perhaps your needs ain't pleased with our cider," Lai mumbled while giving him a sly look. "Why don't I lead you ladies up to your room, so you can unpack? Then you all can get that load off your back and party like you mean it. Is this a deal?"  
  
Oh, to get away from the bustle down here! "Yeah, let's do that. Ludores? Kimiria?"  
  
Posie wiped a green bit of kinra from her upper lip. "Huh?"  
  
"Why don't we let this nice Lai-Mae take us up to our new room? I'm sure it will be lovely, and much more pleasant than it is down here." Hint, hint; nudge, nudge; wink, wink. In other words, let's get the heck out of here before we're stoned as that one was.  
  
"D'oh. Ok. If you say so."  
  
"Come on, let's get out of here. I think it's making you heady already." Elaine set down her empty glass and tugged at Posie's colorful collar.  
  
*************************************  
  
The blushing skies shed winds of vibrant pigment through the air, voluminous clouds smudged with orange and cherry as the sun began to retreat into its bed. Had one whole day really gone that fast? Up in the teetering, musty parapet, warm zephyrs gentle as a breath caressed Link's flowing golden locks. But the very presence here swelled with death and agony, and no warrior could ever mistake the smell of rancid blood. Where were they being lead, exactly? Their guide, Lai-Mae of course, had been silent ever since they began to ascend the stairs at the end of the corridor. He'd only been too happy to get away from that horrid celebration, but the dust he whiffed here and there sent frozen thunderbolts up his spine.  
  
They were approaching a dead end, it seemed-no, wait, there was a small bend here. But it didn't look like the hall on the other side of the corner went very far.  
  
"So where are we going, anyway?"  
  
Goddesses bless your little soul, Posie.  
  
"Hmmm. Well, like I told you, despite the fact that most of our chicks know where their places is, there are some of 'em who just don't play by the rules. And this would be where we keep them till their dying days, right after the morgue."  
  
Link gasped. Had they been ousted from their prank? "You're taking us to a prison chamber?!"  
  
"Aww, no. We're not that hostile with out guests. But rules is rules, so till you ladies get yourself evaluated by Lady Nabooru herself you're gonna be sleepin' with the Undertaker. That's why she's so close to the dead folks. Her name'd be Nukira Scythebearer, but most people just call her 'Hey, you' or 'Get your sorry hide over here.'"  
  
"Ouch," winced Posie. "What'd she do, exactly?"  
  
"I dunno! Something or other; had some sort of affair, I think. I never pay attention! But she's a troublemaker, and troublemakers gotta be put in their place. I warn you, she's a bit hostile, so... don't try to bite her just yet."  
  
No worries there. They'd be long gone before the sun laid down its flaming head. But that was enough to put a pang in his mind again. Not only did she get shoved around, but this Nukira was apparently being punished for a crime no one remembered. If only there was something he could do to ease the pain on her shoulders...  
  
Lai came to a stop in front of a crimson red door rotted from a battering of sand and just barely managing to hang onto its brass hinges. She made an overly polite and meek knock on the door and called to within. "Oh Nukira, honey, you've got company! Couple of greenhorns gobbled up by your dear older sister Rohmerla."  
  
"Go away!" Now, where had Link heard that tone of voice before? She sounded like Posie might, feeling upset and locked away in her room. A few gasping noises-sobs, undoubtedly-furthered the image of a distraught child. And comparing this total stranger to his daughter wasn't helping the empathy molding on his heart.  
  
"Now sweetie-"-ugh, how transparently false her honeyed voice sounded-"-you know the rules! At least now, don't you?"  
  
"Ha-Ha-Ha. I'm so amused! Really! Find some other pigeon!"  
  
"They're not approved yet, love, you really need to share your room!"  
  
"MAKE ME!"  
  
"Nukira!" Earnestly brutal. "Even you demand some privacy, but if you don't let me in this instant I'll-"-she rattled the doorknob, glued firmly into its socket. "SCYTHEBEARER! UNLOCK THE DOOR THIS INSTANT! I'LL SLIT YOUR THROAT WITH MY OWN BLOODRED NAILS AND I WON'T HESITATE TO DO IT EITHER!"  
  
"AND THEY'LL BE NO ONE TO SWEEP YOUR CORPSE AFTER I MURDER YOU!"  
  
"INGRAAAAATE!"  
  
"NOT HALF OF ONE AS YOU!"  
  
"SHUT UP!" Make that a double blessing for her, Immortal Ones. Posie shrieked with unleashed rage and hands slapped over her ears. "Honestly! Shut up! Look, Miss Nukira or whatever, and Lai-Mae, act your age! Both of you! Even I'm more mature than you are, and I'm less than a fourth of what you both must be at minimum! Or something like that. My math is really bad."  
  
Blood-curdling silence swept the hall. The withered door squealed ajar, shattering that silence easily as a stone shatters glass.  
  
Glancing out from the sliver between wood and stone shot a skewering green eye, blotched and red around the edges and slimed over with saltwater. Beneath the puffy lids curved a cursed black crescent, not a product of make-up as the other Gerudo's paintings were, but permanately etched there by some flaming needle. A few threads of dull, oily red hair wafted in front of it. Her nose was sharp and shoved upwards, framed on both sides by an arching gradient that melted to yellow from red in the black outline of a bonfire. Her lips were plain and brown, chapped and whitening. She was rounder about the middle than most of her kin, but still shapely-and her wind-beaten arms were long and slender, but not in the same sinewy sense as the others. Her plain dark purple shirt was flat and patched many times, and her lavender pants had lost their lovely billow long ago.  
  
If you couldn't tell that she was the local scapegoat just by looking at her, you had to be blind. She had an emaciated voice sanded threadbare from weeping. It cracked like weathered rubber. "Yes?"  
  
"May we come in?" asked Elaine timidly.  
  
Nukira Scythebearer scanned Lai, and those in front of her. Link, frown. Posie, double frown. Elaine-well, it set those crushed lips straight, at least. They twitched at the edges, like they wanted to smile- but had forgotten how.  
  
"They're sisters," Lai explained. "Noble girls, you know, who ran away to join the Gerudos. Until they get their own room they're staying here. And no arguments. Yes?"  
  
"Pssh, yeah, whatever. Just so long as they stay out of my stuff, they can stay for tonight only. After that I want them about of my sight. Can you say 'yes?'"  
  
"Ehh, don't have a cow, Nukira. If you say so. And do be a pleasant hostess!"  
  
"OK, OK, it's a deal! Now go, go, off to your wretched party." Then she mumbled minutely to Link, "Watch out for them. They think they know everything and can rule you."  
  
"Errm..." Nukira swung her arm around Link's torso and ushered him inside. The two girls cemented themselves to his legs. Somehow feeling it a good idea, Posie paused when she entered the dilapidated little room and prodded the door shut behind her with a kick.  
  
Only the dwindling red flush filtering in from a tiny cleft in the barren stone walls provided any light. Everything was bathed in an ethereal twilight glow that would put a rose in even the palest cheek. Against the wall with the window was a bare, near-collapsed mattress riddled with rips. The stone confines were barren and sapped heat away from the warm bodies that touched them. It could barely hold the four of them as it was, yet it felt so very empty and... lonely. It was missing something, the one thing that could make even this rended mess feel cozy.  
  
"OK. Are you a crazy fetishist, insane transvestite, or have you just plain lost your marbles?" Oops. Quixotic philosophy would get you nowhere when it came to Gerudos.  
  
"Heh, heh... why would you think I was any of those things?" The intimidating female force inched at him, fists balled, while he tried to back up and slammed into the wall.  
  
"I'll admit I know nothing about you just yet, but there are at least three things I've gathered so far-one, those aren't your sisters, two, you aren't here to join us and three, you aren't even a woman!"  
  
"Damn you! How'd you know?" Link just couldn't help it any longer. The barrier had to break sometime! Well, if someone knew them out, no point in disguising his voice any longer.  
  
"Careful, there are tender young ears in this room." She looked at Posie and Elaine, who were not staring about dazedly for once and were actually standing straight and still in a shadowed corner of the chamber. Backs were transfixed to-hmm, he hadn't noticed that chest when he first walked in. It seemed impossible not to notice, now; it drew his eyes like wine draws bees. He wanted to stab something in that keyhole, even his sword, and try to pry it open... "So come on! What's the deal?! Don't worry; I mean; telling on someone who'd show up those snobs? The last thing I'd do!"  
  
"Huh?" Blasted distractions. "Oh. Well, why should I trust you? You seem rather moody. How do we know you won't snitch on us in a fit of angst?"  
  
"Men. Dirty chauvinists. Don't think you're so smart. What makes me less trustful than you?"  
  
"You're not telling me anything! And is that an accusation, missy?"  
  
"Don't missy me! I'll slice you into a million pieces before you can blink."  
  
"With what? A rusty bed-knob?"  
  
"Don't go there! Don't go there!"  
  
"I'll go wherever I want to, you little b-"  
  
Intervention time! Posie grinned inwardly, knowing how very much Navi would have loved to be a part of this conversation were she not sworn to silence, but she herself had better butt in quick before her father's temperament and mouth dug him into a deep, deep hole. "OK! OK! We get the picture. Obviously you two aren't going anywhere. I'm willing to negotiate and tell you what we're up too, since I have the feeling you're holding some sort of grudge against them down there-right?"  
  
Nice timing! And a well-aimed splash, drizzling out the emerald blaze consuming Nukira's eyes. Her twitching green radar relocated west and down. "Nice try. But what does a little girl know about negotiation?"  
  
"Now you shouldn't go there," warned Link. "I'd ask the same thing of little girls and Gerudos. But do you think this was my idea? Do you think I got us into this place? No, it was the brown-haired one! I could swear she was a Gerudo! Goddesses!" His hands vividly cleaned the motes that swam in the slanting rays of sunlight.  
  
"Hmmm. Well, I suppose maybe there's more to you than I can see- "  
  
"-Mainly a very small yet very sharp little sword cleverly concealed behind that vest of hers, and a dagger in mine in case you do something stupid-"  
  
Nukira gave a questioning eyebrow behind the blonde lass to surmise Elaine. "Cocky little thing, aren't you? Under the impression you can get away with anything? Well, let me tell you this, bub. Lightning couldn't be fast as a Gerudo if it wanted." She snapped her fingers, grinning coyly. "A spider, with all eight of its eyes, couldn't see all the things a Gerudo sees. Me? I'm young, but years of inactivity have sent me to seed. Those sixty-something guards, who snap their staves every day? You wouldn't last a minute out there." So passionately and frighteningly she could speak, enunciating every word in just the right way to tap the nerves. She forced the words from her lips to make them hiss, flew them softly and calmly to rupture normal emotion. It was enough to set off a paranoia time-bomb. "Go ahead! Try. Just try. Go and stab the next guard you see. Guaranteed it will be the last thing you do."  
  
Elaine was unperturbed. Even that should have been more upsetting than Nukira's gruesome speech. Posie's heavy, stress-laden breathing was painfully obvious.  
  
"Hey, would you shut up? You're scaring her!" The temptation to smack that painting-faced witch was almost overwhelming. He settled for a karate chop down, but not touching, her front. He smirked in vengeance as she blenched back in momentary shock.  
  
"Well, blame it on them for being smart! I hope she ain't your kid, 'cause if she is, you better teach her a thing or two."  
  
"Not the brunette, no. But the smaller one is mine, and if you value your life you'll keep your mouth closed over her. And let me tell you something; I don't blame them for the way they reacted, seeing as you are being totally unreasonable. They aren't the only ones with hidden blades, know that now..." He pointed to himself with his thumb and made a slicing gesture, not over his throat but in a big, jagged diagonal over his stomach. Any remorse he'd felt for the outcast had faded now.  
  
"Look. I understand it's natural for you to want to be protective of your daughter. But you're too tense, man! If you really want to fight me, then like I said, have at me, no one will care. I'm fated to die anyway in thirty years, after my sentence is through. But if you assume the rest of my family will fall just as easy, then you got another thing coming, pal-"  
  
"I won't fight you if you just drop your stinking attitude! Look, rejoice in the fact that the three of us won't even be here after tonight, as we plan to escape through the Haunted Wasteland. Just a momentary inconvenience in your life!" Blast it all if he cared whether she knew or not now, if she was as low on the rungs as she claimed to be, there would be no one to trust in and believe her anyway.  
  
"How?"  
  
One simple word, and only the crickets starting to cheep rapidly beneath the first few diamonds sparkling in the sky could be heard now. One simple word, and even the party raging below seemed distant. One simple word, and Link was left without an argument. She was right-they still had no way of getting past the barrier presented to them in the form of an eternal sandstorm. "Uhh... well..."  
  
"Why don't you help us? After all, you're the Undertaker! You could walk across the Wasteland in your sleep, right?"  
  
"Honey," she flailed a little wave at Posie, "When they kill me, I'm gonna drag myself to the stupid Temple. And if I do choose to lend you a hand, what's in it for me? What's my incentive?"  
  
"A very nice Lizafosian dagger? It's a bit rusty, but nothing a high-speed sand polishing won't fix!"  
  
"Thanks for the offer, kid, but I have my own swords. Granted, I can't exactly get to them as they're locked away in that chest behind you- "  
  
Elaine took a step forward and craned her neck around to get a good look at the big wooden thing she was standing in front of. "Oh. So that's what this is... Hey! I'll bet we could open it for you. Then, if we got your swords back, you could help us!"  
  
Nukira knotted her arms on her heart. "Nice thought, but then they'd murder me for it. They're gonna notice if I suddenly have a pair of blades at my side that aren't supposed to be there. Strictly forbidden from carrying weaponry, you know?" She sauntered over to her mattress and sat herself down, cradling her chin in her palms and bracing her elbows on her thighs. "Nah, I reckon there's nothing you can do for me. There's only one thing I want, and I'll never get that again in a million years."  
  
"Nothing's impossible for me. Ask, and it shall be granted."  
  
The condemned soul shot him a telltale glance. Then, Posie and Elaine. She lifted her face high and pointed at them-"You kiddies wait outside. This ain't a story for your ears."  
  
"Aww, is it bloody? Don't worry. We've seen plenty of it already, you should have seen what my daddy did to these Lizafos where she got that dagger from-"  
  
"No," she fiercely interrupted. "It's not that. I can't even tell you what it is. But trust me, if I tell you you'll be all 'Ewwww' and... yeah. So, shoo! Go downstairs, get yourself some xingyr or something." Reluctantly they obeyed, and to Link as Elaine slammed the door shut behind them: "You. Down. This could take a while." Her arm was erect and her finger on line with a spot next to her on the bed. Shrugging his shoulders and making a "Feh" noise, he swung his arms as he plodded over and sighed as he sat down.  
  
"Okay, you. What do you want?"  
  
Nukira closed her eyes and let her mouth hang, giving a depressed, deep breath. She began to massage the back of her neck, and began in a subdued tone. "'Kay, you; you look someone who works for the government am I correct about this?"  
  
"Closest person other than her father to Zelda herself," Link perkily answered. "What's it to you?"  
  
"Well, that's helpful, then. Did you ever hear of-a Gerudo ambassador?"  
  
"A Gerudo ambassador? Zelda'd cut off her own head before trying something like that. Why?"  
  
"Always with the questions! Just-stop it with the snappy remarks and listen for once. Now, the Royal Family did try this once, and they knew it would cause an uproar so they kept it pretty much under wraps. They picked out, from a sea of about 100 eligible men, this one... guy. Yes, guy. I can fathom not why they chose a male. So they sent this dude to live off in the desert of the Gerudos for a long time. Following so far?"  
  
Silently Link nodded, biting his tongue.  
  
"Good. Now, one of the top kin decided everyone should pick a Hylean codename. Nobody was allowed to know everyone's except the leaders, and at the time, I was one of them. A real Gerudo-my old clothes were ten times this fancy, I had the most elaborate makeup, my jewel was huge- everyone respected me. What names do you know so far?"  
  
Link looked up at the ceiling as he searched his mind. "Rohmerla... Lai-Mae... and Shaki. The only ones so far."  
  
"Ahh. They called themselves... if I remember correctly... Lessian, Susanna, and Sheryl. Myself, I was the great Naomi. But I thought the whole business of this ambassador person was completely ludicrous, so I refused to speak to him. Even to meet him. He was given free range of our entire kingdom out here, so, it was sort of inevitable that I ran into him, one day-I was at the Spirit Temple, doing a 'routine cleaning.' In other word, I was slashing at everything that moved."  
  
"Sorry, but I gotta ask something," Link butted in. "How'd you do it with just swords? Some of those monsters in there, they can only be beaten with fire."  
  
"My swords were powerfully magical," she answered, gripping herself as if she was cold. Her sight diverted out the window. "One enchanted with fire, the other with ice. A gift from my grandmothers, the Twinrova, who thought me the perfect example of a Gerudo."  
  
"You're Ganondorf's daughter?"  
  
"Yeah, me and every other Gerudo under the age of thirty," she snarled. "I always hated him. He was far too stuck up for his own good; and he abused all of our precious few resources. I'm glad he died, or at least got changed into a demon. Death is too good for him, really."  
  
"Can I agree," Link mumbled without really meaning to be heard. "So you were saying..."  
  
"Yeah. Well, like I was telling you, we met at the Spirit Temple. I tried to pass with just a smile, maybe a wayward 'Hi,' but you know, I just couldn't keep my eyes off his face. Which wasn't easy, considering he topped me by a couple heads. But... I'd never seen anyone so handsome in my life, and no one with eyes like that... so full of kindness and hope..."  
  
"So... I take it that wasn't the last time you 'accidentally' ran into him?"  
  
"Hardly the last! It was only the beginning! It was only about a month before he started to flirt with me-what he saw in me, I can't fathom. I was just another lowly scuzzbag back then. But he was so kind to me, like no one else was, so... what can I say? To make a long ordeal short, we flirted, we dated, I ran away with him when he had to leave. But of course I couldn't stay-a couple Gerudos came to his house one day, searching for me, and I couldn't hide fast enough. That's how I got demoted to where I am now, and why I'm on the Gerudo death row."  
  
Link's eyes were gleaming and the back of his throat itched painfully, but he wasn't actually crying. Perhaps this whipish creature had some good in her yet. "That's so awful. How could they punish you just for loving someone? Maybe it was a bit of an unconventional paring, but heck! If I told you Saria's story, your hair'd become as curly as most of your sisters' is. Did he ever write you?"  
  
"Just once. And after that nothing. The King found out; and a bloody horrible incident for him it was. He'd been fired from his ambassador status and dismissed to a mere town guard, but they let him keep..." She swallowed and said no more.  
  
Fired and turned into a guard? Something was fishily familiar about that story...  
  
"Well, that's an unimportant detail." She dismissed the point with a flapping of her hands. "So, do we all understand where I'm standing now? Those are my issues. Now, what're yours?" She then pointed at Link.  
  
"Me? Uh, well, huh..."  
  
"Come on, out with it! I got through my whole painful ordeal without ever busting. You can at least start without stuttering!"  
  
"Well give me a moment! Sheesh!" Link brushed back his hair and forced his bangs out of his eyes. "So... me. Yeah. I'm... Link. I'm not kidding! Really, I am. And I DO have a reason for dressing up like this." Distractedly he pulled out the edge of his undershirt to show it to Nukira, though she'd already seen it. She looked sideways at him and replied with a "Suuuure you are," but whether he was lying or not this promised to be an interesting story. She'd hear out his tale before interrogating further.  
  
"Now, there's a thing... in my family... an old magical sword trick that, supposedly, only we can do. But two different members of my family give me two different stories, so who you gonna believe, huh? Well, if it's a family thing, then it's all probable, and if it's an everyone thing, well, then there's simply no excuse..."  
  
"For what, prithee?"  
  
"I was getting to that! You know that really little kid; that's my daughter Posie. I said that already, right? Wants to be my little shadow. But her talents are lacking in the skills of just that one move. And it's so simple, when you break it down! She gets so upset over her failures, I had to do something to help her... and I found this old book, and part of it told about the Sword of Obedience."  
  
"Never heard of it. What's it do?"  
  
"'Cording to the book, gives the first person to touch it command over all swords. I'd think that would fix the problem, yes?"  
  
Nukira sighed and made a sick face. "And have you considered exactly what that means?"  
  
Link shrugged. "Sounds pretty blunt to me. They've got a sword, they can do anything with it. Right?"  
  
"I dunno. The way it's worded... it sounds to me like it could also mean that they can make any sword do anything, no matter where it is- and perhaps, all swords. 'Course, I'm only speculating, but I'd suggest you stop and think for a moment before you-"  
  
There way a knock at the door. "Can you hurry up and let us in?" a muffled voice asked from behind the screen. "These bowls are really really hot!"  
  
"Coming!" cried the Gerudo as she strained to foist herself from the sagging bed and stand firmly on her feet. She fought with the rusty knob for a few seconds until it actually came out, and, moaning, she tugged it in to make way for the two girls. Such acute timing. Poised in Elaine's arms was a rocking ceramic bowl filled to almost overflowing with the xingyr, a hot, pungent mass of porridge, beet soup, beef and pepper sauce. Very warming on a cold night, but Nukira'd never cared much for the stuff, despite it being a staple part of the Gerudo diet. The girl walked with a bit of a hunch, due to the fact she was trying to help Posie support her own, messy bowl. Nukira ushered them in, then heavily urged them to sit on the floor and eat.  
  
Posie lifted a spoon resting on the rim of her saucer and took an oversized bite of the sloppy concoction, obviously not delighted but certainly grateful for finally getting a little food in her stomach. The group hadn't eaten since midmorning; before leaving Darunia behind they'd had a quick brunch in his quarters. Link's stomach rumbled and he realized how hungry he was, but rather than beg the girls for some of their stew he opened one of the many flaps on his backpack and pulled out a sandwich. On a spur of instinct he only half-consciously grabbed and extra and passed it to Nukira. She looked shocked, but smiled a little at the first good thing done for her in a long time. She watched the others eat in silence for a little before taking a bite of her own sandwich and speaking.  
  
After a few seconds of complacent chewing, she surveyed the ground and mattress. "OK, ladies and gent, for the low low price of her freedom, you've hired yourself a Gerudo. Use her wisely, 'cuz after you get to the Spirit Temple, she's gonna split."  
  
"Great!" Link exclaimed. "Now, how do we get out there without those boneheads getting suspicious?"  
  
"Oooooooh no, Mr. Hero. I run on a strictly B.Y.O.P. basis."  
  
"B.Y.O.P.?"  
  
"Yeah, Bring Your Own Plan." She waggled her finger in Link's face. "And bring it quick, because if we're not out of here pronto, we've got no chance in all of heaven and Hyrule. All the floozies out there are getting drunk off burdened kinra, so they're out of commission for tonight, and tomorrow morning they'll be too hung over to worry about anything but their migraines. But let me tell you, after that all their hackles will be raised and mark my words, you do NOT want to mess with them then. So lay something on me... and idea, anything."  
  
"Hey, I know! We'll make ourselves look dead and Nukira can drag us across the desert. Then we sprint! People die from foreign diseases all the time, so there's our excuse for that bit."  
  
"Nice thought, Posie, but I don't think it'll work. We wouldn't get picked off that quick. And besides, I'll bet they always have someone follow her out there. Right, Miss Nukira?"  
  
"Tell it like it is, girl," sighed the Gerudo as she slumped over the edge of the bed and took another bite of her sandwich. "Every time I leave the vicinity of the fortress, they make someone follow me to make sure I don't run off."  
  
"I could follow you. Your sisters'd have no problem with them being the dead ones. They're just kids," offered Link.  
  
"Thanks, but you're not a senior officer. It'd have to be one of them. Sad thing is, I used to work among a lot of them... a lot of them don't repent a thing about me and the whole RJ incident, but a couple of them empathize when we're well out of bounds of the camp-you know?"  
  
"Sort of," shrugged Link. He had only been half listening, trying to come up with another scheme. He hadn't even noticed the name she identified, RJ-a pair of initials he would have found sickeningly fishy if he'd managed to hook into them. But one person in the room did hear them, and you could almost feel the buzzing of the tips of her ears as her head rocketed up from her bowl. Not even the slightest bit embarrassed by the beet-colored blob hanging by her lip, she gulped and asked, stuttering: "Y- y-you... y-y-you didn't... this RJ incident... you never... on any occasion... knew a very tall man, brown hair, brown eyes, deep voice?"  
  
Nukira's eyes made locked contact with Elaine's. "How do you know my RJ?"  
  
"Y-y-your Hylean name... it's not... Naomi, is it?"  
  
How did she know? She'd never heard any of Nukira's story! Unless... RJ... Guard... Old job... Oh no. This Gerudo wasn't; she absolutely couldn't be...  
  
"And your name... is it... E-E-Elaine K-Kimiria Parkerstine?"  
  
No one even drew a breath for a few tense seconds. A soft wheeze escaped Posie's mouth and, like a cue, both Gerudo and Gerudo-like child began to nod, even movement suggesting that their spines might have instantly rusted over.  
  
"She never told me what her real name, her Gerudo name, was, but I didn't care. All I knew was that she was simply Naomi."  
  
"She's of both worlds, so shouldn't her name match? Kimiria. I like that. Exotic and beautiful. But she's a Hylean too, so let her Hylean name be... Elaine. Kimiria is Sun Child, Elaine is Light. Doesn't that flow together elegantly?"  
  
"It was a horrible incident... everything was flying around, breaking, as they tried fitfully to find her..."  
  
"I cannot image what it is like to be in your shoes, but I know your greatest pain must be separation from the daughter you barely know... well, fear not, for I shall keep to my promise of bring her up as much Gerudo as Hylean..."  
  
Time was standing still. No one moved. No one blinked. No one did anything except think, and each had a different set of thoughts churning in his or her brain. Link had just come to the possibly awful revelation that Elaine was half Gerudo, and that her mother was sitting right in front of her, next to him on the bed. Posie had known about Elaine's heritage for years, and was stunned to actually be meeting the supposedly lost mother of her best friend. And Elaine and Nukira were facing each other down, acknowledging, for the first time since Elaine's birth, that one crucial element of their lives that had left an astronomical gap. It was not the weepy-eyed gushing mother and child reunion so often pictured in books; it was quite, contemplating, and far more of a shock than a heart-warmer.  
  
Somehow the tan woman managed to pull her face away. She turned to Link, glazed and ceramic. He wondered what she would say. His heart thudded, nervously, at the chance of finding out. Her lips snapped open; the pictures flooding past made him chuckle with agony and groan with relief.  
  
"Link, you have made some VERY fortunate friends."  
  
A combined flux of laughter mounted near the ceiling, rising up from the miscellany club near the floor. Good to see everyone was still in light spirits after the revelation made there only a snap of the fingers ago. Funny how everyone looked so unaffected, though Link's bones could feel the fragile thread of emotions had bent in a totally different direction. Just knowing that he had a perpetual ally forming in front of him, all because Elaine happened to be her daughter, was reassuring. Surely they could trust this thief not to bilk them? Hmm, but unlike swords, tongues had a tendency not to dull as easily... balk, maybe, but not bilk. He could live with that.  
  
"So... anyone managed to get any real thought in the silence of the strange?"  
  
"Doubt it," mumbled Elaine. She finally noticed the goo hanging by her chin, and scooped it up with the tip of her tongue.  
  
"Ah, blast. I had a thought, but it's wild. First I'd need my swords back, then you all would need to blow your weapons, and it would involve serious risks to us all, mainly decapitation. But if for some strange reason any of you have ever had the urge to play Slice-A-Gerudo..."  
  
"A chance to give those slimy little bastards what's coming to 'em? I'm sold," shrugged Link.  
  
"There goes your mouth again... and I'd like to know just how you plan to pry that thing open." She stuffed the last bit of her ham and cheese sandwich into her mouth and arrowed at the chest. The wooden hinges were rusty, probably brittle, but it would take more than bare hands to pry them loose. The outer wooden surface was nicked in more places than one, chipping away foul-smelling old paint to show that simply hacking into it wasn't much of an option either-that box was made out of stone-hard ebony. Not even swords could stand up to a couple inches of that midnight wood. A conundrum, indeed. Link scratch his head.  
  
"Ummm. Well, there's a problem. There's gotta be something we can do. No way we can cut through, that's for sure. The lock's rusty, but we might be able to get it open... you don't keep any hairpins, do you?"  
  
"Fuh! Last time I did anything to my hair was well of a year ago. They pick on me anyways, so why should I care how I look?"  
  
Perhaps a bit too much information... well, one old trick down the drain. Link massaged his chin in thought. "If only we had something slender and pointy we could slip the catch with. Like a needle; that would work. Or-"  
  
"An arrowhead?"  
  
"No, that wouldn't work. Arrows are too large and they'd never fit inside! No, what we need-"  
  
"No," Elaine interrupted again, "one of Posie's arrowheads! Because they couldn't be large, you had 'em made so that getting pierced with one would be like getting a porcupine quill jammed into your arm." Or, in more colorful terms that even Elaine's fairly advanced(for a little kid, anyway) vocabulary could not illustrate-each of the thirty arrows prepared for that small quiver was like a miniature hypodermic needle, though they did not serve as benevolent a purpose for those on the receiving end.  
  
"Oh!" Realization dawned on Link's features. "That's right! She hasn't had a chance to use her bow yet, has she? Well, at least we know those arrows won't go to waste?"  
  
The expression he struck on Posie's face was pure gold. Her pupils went tight despite the waning light and her lips made something of a pout combined with comically slanted eyebrows. This wasn't exactly how she'd wanted to use her weapons, picking locks. But what had to be done... ennuyé by the proposal, she exhaled and gave a weary nod.  
  
Link grinned and nodded back, and bent over to pick through the backpack he'd set on the floor. Tunics, potions, food... amazingly, Navi, lulled into sleep by the swaying of the bag as he walked. And there were Posie's arrows and her bow! So far, they'd proven useless on their travels. He hoped he had not made too frivolous a purchase in them. He withdrew one from the sack, closed it up, and turned to the imposing casket.  
  
He'd never had to pick locks before. Contrary to what his agent would have the world think, most doors in dungeons were unlocked, and if they were shut, the corresponding key could be found somewhere nearby. He plunged the glinting flint tip of the arrow into the dark hole and wiggled it, just to see what would happen.  
  
A couple minutes of fruitless squirming around in the dark pushed Nukira, master thief in her yesterdays, to the limits. "Oh; amateur!" she whined. "Give me that thing. I'll show you how to pick a lock."  
  
With a titanic thrust she knocked him out of the way and snatched up the toothpick arrow where it fell as he'd dropped it. She cradled the giant and perhaps a bit overly adorning padlock in her left palm while, with great concentration, she threaded the little spear in with her right. She bit her tongue and stuck it out, sweat emanating from her forehead and nose, while she methodically twitched and swiveled over her pick. Her ears buzzed, listing for even the slightest hint of a click that would betray her success...  
  
A tiny clack. She could feel the brown, chilled twist slip loose above her fingers. A small glimmering of success in her eyes? Obviously she'd broken into so many of these seals triumphing one was no mounted achievement, but this had to have special meaning for her. It meant the end of her own imprisonment, as well as that for her twin scimitars. Almost emotionlessly(though her slight trembling betrayed her heart) she tugged at the heavy bond that kept the latch in place. It wrenched free with a squealing sound that yowled like a pack of Wolfos in the incipient night.  
  
Nukira slipped her fingers gently under the heavy wooden lid and slowly opened the trunk.  
  
********************************  
  
"I feel like the main character in some bad spy novel."  
  
"Sush. You want those drunken fools to hear you?"  
  
The instant her hands had cupped around the hilts of the pair of glowing knives, Nukira(now demanding to be called "Naomi") had, at the same time she renounced everything Gerudo about her life, become even more of one to the hero-worshipping Elaine, smug Posie, and still slightly bewildered Link. The two magnificently polished artifacts were imbued with an iridescent glimmer, that caught best in the suffocating moonlight and showed hints of incinerating red and frostbitten blue. The atom-thin edges seemed to bite vacuums in the air as she moved stealthily, swords hanging what an ordinary person might take for unassumingly by her thighs.  
  
"Naomi's" hand rested on the hilt of her right blade, whose inner hue was the ashy color of smoke. The gem encrusting the middle of the cross was a dusty ruby. Her other one was held to her lips, holding up a finger of silence. It was already eerily quiet inside the fortress, most of the Gerudos dropped in their seats in an inebriated sleep. They had made relatively good time in getting out of there-the sisters had all either fainted or gone up to their rooms around eight. Now the task set before Link, Posie, Elaine and their new aide was sneaking out and around to the Haunted Wasteland.  
  
"I don't know why I never thought of this in the first place," murmured Naomi as she straddled over a fallen woman who, Link thought, looked suspiciously like Lai-Mae.(Not like that made her anything special, she and the rest of her mucked-up family all had exactly the same looks.) "After all, on party days, not even the night watch bothers standing guard. No one this stoned is going to be up to leaving."  
  
"Tip-toe, through the Ger-u-dos..."  
  
"Posie! Don't sing! You're gonna wake 'em up!"  
  
"Sorry."  
  
Which reminded him... "Say, Nu-I mean, Naomi, would you happen to have a plan B in case one of us steps just a little too hard on someone's stomach?"  
  
"Uh, run like hell! And bring out those swords, because we might have problems..."  
  
Link groaned and tucked a fluttering lock back into his cap. It was such a relief, to be back in his normal clothes. After the heaviness of the Goron tunics and the sheer embarrassment of wearing Gerudo garb, his classic Kokiri clothes were like a sanctuary in cloth. Plus, they made far less noise when he moved. "You are a tactical mastermind, honestly. And what was that you said earlier about me having a salty mouth...?"  
  
"'Hell?' How is that a bad word? It's the name of a place for crying out loud! And where I'm supposedly heading once I kick the bucket, you know."  
  
Posie glanced behind her, holding her arms out to feel her route in the descended darkness. "Please don't talk about kicking buckets, we're gonna bet jinxed!"  
  
Elaine stumbled while her friend cried out distressed, "See?" She wobbled to her feet and smoothed out her dress. "Oh, come on, you don't believe in jinxes, do you?"  
  
"Daddy told me he's been jinxed before! I know they're real!"  
  
Link smirked uneasily. "Yes, but, Elaine's right, sweetie. A jinx is a kind of spell cast by creatures like Anti-Fairies that makes your sword get too heavy to lift. Though that certainly is inconvenient, they don't actually bring bad luck. Temple bells! Explosions! Thunder! Shattering glass!" Every time he rattled off another loud noise, Posie winced and clamped her hands over her ears. She chanted nonsense words she apparently believed to be some kind of countercurse. "See? Nothing bad happened."  
  
"Ok, but please don't do that again! I'm scared!"  
  
"We're all a bit jumpy, kiddo, but do you wanna be stuck here the rest of you life?" Posie shook her head while she bit the white puff sticking out from her collar. "Thought not. We gotta get out of here. Don't worry, we'll be absolutely fine!"  
  
Somewhere out in the undulating gold-blue dunes of the desert, an emaciated tan Wolfos spouted a mournful howl as the legendary Purple Leever, lathery spittle flying from its circular mouth, consumed the rubbery beast for its supper.  
  
Every eye in the room that had been closed before sprung open.  
  
"Well, I guess jinxes work on reverse psychology, then," Naomi sighed sardonically. 


	9. That Ain't Good

(Chapterly Author's Note: Originally Spinning Slash was going to involve two main sub-plots-Naomi following Link through thick and thin in a fruitless attempt to reclaim her daughter and go with her back to Randy, and exactly what happened to Ruto after she realized Link wasn't going to be coming back to her. Originally number two of those was going to start in Chapter 3, but I couldn't find room for it. I also realized Slash had little plot and the *coughcoughlotsofhackingcough* in the final chapter would be totally dues ex machine, sort of, but in a randomly reversed sense. So I minimized the second sub-plot to a random pitfall met by the crew and added in the Twinrova stuff, which not only helped give the story more depth but also explained why, in the last Chapter-*has a sudden heart attack and faints dead away*)  
  
(Don't you just HATE the way I tease you? But if you haven't figured out what Twinrova are doing, then seriously... an urn... what do you keep in those? And considering what they are, what might they do with contents of said urn?)  
  
Spinning Slash, Chapter 9: That Ain't Good...  
  
Hot! Hot! Hot! Sand in boots! Cruel agony! Torture! The fine grains populating this vast wasteland had not lost their blazing tendencies even as the shimmering sun had gone to sleep far beyond the mountains.  
  
No. Must keep running. After all, it was better than fifteen inches of steel through the gut.  
  
"Link!" huffed Naomi as a cloud of dust erupted behind her wildly flailing feet. "D'you think we can STOP now?! I'm sure we've left those goons a mile behind us!"  
  
"No!" he snappishly replied and clutched Posie even tighter to his chest. "You yourself said lightning couldn't be as fast as a Gerudo if..."  
  
"Never MIND what I said! I... can't... keep this up... for much longer..."  
  
"Set me down, then!" whined Elaine, attempting to kick her way out of Naomi's arms. "I can run! I have feet! I-argggg!" There was a hefty peril to talking while trying to run through the Haunted Wasteland. It was easy to get a mouthful of sand.  
  
"Not fast enough, chikkura Kimiria. We're probably farther ahead of them than Link thinks, but they can and will catch up pretty quickly if we stop."  
  
Posie squirmed as if she'd like to add something substantial to the conversation, but, having seen already what would happen if she opened her mouth, she was silent.  
  
So far, Link could surmise, this entire trip had just been one big misadventure after another. The incident with the potion shop, the foul-smelling Goron City and the girls accidentally setting off a bomb flower, the rock slides and Lizafos in the volcano, and now this. And to think it'd barely been a single day yet! This was going to make one heck of a story when he got back. A story no one but his friends would know about, thanks to the King and Zelda signing a little confidentiality agreement. No one would notice much, either, that he was missing, they'd just think he was off on some silly errand.(Like the rather botched "Pizza Boy" incident... it made him shudder just to think about it.) Let's just hope, now, that he wasn't mauled by an unruly mob of half-drunk Gerudos somewhere out in the middle of the desert.  
  
It was quite an amazement, actually, that they'd managed to make it this far. And in the lead, no less! Getting out alone had taken no less than fifteen minutes of hack-and-slash that had seen numerous women with third-degree burns and frostbite(courtesy of Naomi), large, bleeding gashes(Link's handiwork), several smaller puncture wounds already starting to look gangrenous(Elaine's little rusty dagger was more powerful than its size would admit), and the majority of the bunch with damaged ankles(thanks to Posie). She had managed to hew her way through and under the forest of legs before the others did, and made a sprint through the blood-scented night while the others tried to cut past their adversaries and follow.  
  
The instant Link and Naomi caught up to her, Link grabbed her by the back of her collar and was eating sand with his toes at twice the rate she had been. Naomi could go three times him. And that was carrying a forty-three pound five-year-old in front of her, no less. Of course, all of Link's equipment probably mounted to something double Elaine's weight, so he was probably doing good time considering. How long had they been plowing these damnable sandstorms? Unseen holocausts raged the muscles in Link's legs. A constant mallet rained blows on his flesh as if it was an anvil the battering ram were tempering steel upon.  
  
Why was that Gerudo complaining? She was ahead. Too far ahead. Darkness met a cascade of earth to make territory a yard ahead invisible. She might know what she was doing up there, but if he lost sight of her, doomed was too good a word to describe him. The septic, green, and whorling leeches called Leevers sunk their cookie cutter of teeth into any flesh they could find; be it carrion, freshly dead, or still living. Thank the Goddesses for the thieves' binge, they were still under the depressant alcohol's effects.  
  
Hopefully they were nearing the small, safe shelter built here by the first of Naomi's people. Link had come across it during his original surf over the desert by happy accident while searching for a decrepit spirit who, he had been told, would lead him to the Desert Goddess. A tall stone dais rose out of the middle of nowhere, sheltering a small ladder he'd climbed down. A pleasantly cool chamber, safe from storm and beast, waited down there, and he'd marked its location in his mind for further reference. Perhaps the way his red-headed friend took was a different cut than his own. But if he could look at her internal maps and found the parallels of his own in them, maybe she knew of this spot too. Most likely a former Undertaker had put it there. That might explain why it had held a repertoire of dusty, but still effective, healing elixirs. (And a pat on the back to Link for remembering it. The sly fox, he'd managed to work it into one of those 'games,' but had edited the contents a little.)  
  
He tried to shout ahead to check his theory. "Naomi! Do you know if we're near the underground sanctuary yet?" Hopefully his terms made sense and she understood what he was talking about.  
  
A breath of fresh air. She did! "Just keep running! The way we're going, we'll trip right over it!"  
  
"Do the other Gerudos know it's there?"  
  
"I don't think so; none of them come out here if they can help it!"  
  
"And if they do know?"  
  
"Be glad that I've quit my job, 'cuz we are gonna whoop their collective-"  
  
She said something that made Elaine go, "Mom!"  
  
Her optimism was a reassuring shot in the arm. It gave his feet the strength to till up more of the dunes and dig forward.  
  
A dark, cylindrical blob was starting to sift through the powdery brown curtain veiling the vast expanse of wilderness. A few more steps, and the rough textures of the bricks that built the dais were slowly dappling into view. Its flat plateau was beginning to separate from its somewhat octagonal sides and it took on the appearance of a solid, gray table. A rough nick of granite constricted its base and slithered up to the top, serving as a vantage point for those trying to eke out the guardian Poe, with his purple rags, flamboyant gray hair, and cinder-black face. The door stabilized in front of the descending ladder was just barely a niche cleaved into the back of the stone, but a pair of sharp eyes could scout its presence easily should they be looking for it. The duo of the foursome on legs skirted the drab girth and pressed right into the still burning rock to help them find the gouge.  
  
"Hee hee hee! Bringing the victims a little hastily today, aren't we, Nukira? Ah well, they'll be dead fast enough! Har heh!"  
  
"Get a death, you! And bug off!" clamped Naomi as the twiggy spirit jingled his lantern in her face. "Oh yeah? And if you so much as hint to those others where we're hiding, you're gonna suffer a second demise, you got that, buddy?"  
  
"Ooh, touchy, huh? Fine, I'll not tell them anything. But seriously, you're such a party-pooper! Someday I'll come to haunt you..."  
  
Naomi chose not to mince any more words with the gusty poltergeist. Her shoulder splintered the fragile barrier stopping them from proceeding in, then leapt, perfectly as a cat, the ten or so feet to the gritty floor. Link shrugged. He'd probably fall on his face trying that trick. He and Posie opted for the ladder. It was not nearly as swift a business. But it was safer.  
  
Link exhaled deeply when his feet touched the first well- packed dirt he'd encountered for what seemed like a million millennia. His legs, glossed with sweat and torn to their outer limits by an incessant marathon, crumpled like paper beneath him. Arrows howled at him from his thighs. Finally the shield had been established. They had their rest. At last.  
  
"Oh, wow," panted Posie, exhausted despite the fact she had stopped running a long time ago. Her cheeks were polished red by the nearly suffocating barrage outside. "That's not an experience I'm going to quickly forget. How far ahead are we?"  
  
"I'd say far enough," groaned the winded Naomi. "We'll wait until they pass overhead, then we sneak out to the Spirit Temple. I think that river you were looking for starts over there. So where we gonna go after that?"  
  
"What 'we?'" Link asked cynically. "Aren't you through with us once we all get out of here?"  
  
"You're kidding me, right? As long as that kid's with you-"- she pointed at Elaine, whom she'd sat down on the pebbly ground-"-I ain't goin' nowhere. Unless you'd feel like surrendering her to me so I can get back home..."  
  
"Now it's my turn to ask you how. You gonna waltz back through the fortress or something?"  
  
"No, I'm going to follow the river."  
  
"To where? You could cross it, but that way'd only get you to Mount Ipanajou. That's where we're headed. You wouldn't wanna go there, Naomi. You'd probably freeze to death a mile before snow line!"  
  
"No, I'd go to Lake Hylia. What are you, crazy? Duh!"  
  
"And commit Gerudo suicide! Your hide will be a rug on the floor of King Zora's bedchamber! Guests will wipe their feet on your back! Having a Hylean with you won't give you immunity."  
  
"I'll stay away from their portal." She scoffed. "Just because I didn't grow up around a whole lot of water doesn't mean I don't know how to swim. Easy peasy."  
  
Elaine turned slightly caustic. "Yes, but that doesn't mean I know how. OK. You want honest truth? I can't swim."  
  
Naomi whipped her head around, her hair becoming a deadly blade. "Whose side are you on, kid?"  
  
"The side of common sense." She picked up a shimmering mica rock from the ground and began to peer at it from various angles.  
  
"Yeah, this coming from the girl who suggested we go traipsing through a very dangerous structure teaming with the dregs of society!"  
  
"Guys!" Posie stamped a foot; even if it didn't make much noise it in the least got everyone's attention. "Quit arguing! We-are-not-getting- anywhere! Somebody go up and take a look! See where those creeps are right now. If they're far enough gone then let's all get out of here!"  
  
"Amen to that, Posie." Link snapped his fingers with that and at the same time wordlessly volunteered. Clambering up the frail wooden steps was not quite as easy as going down, with gravity urging him on, but he could manage... About halfway up he finally had a clear if not wedged view of the plains above. His large, alert eyes probed the landscape for any signs of life. It looked like the Gerudos had already been by, but it was hard to tell as the wind stole all their footprints the second they were left behind in the sand. There was no telltale noise pinpointing them as ahead or behind. He whispered out into the engulfing eternity for the Poe-"Hello?"  
  
"Hoy," sighed the Poe. He faded into vision before Link's very eyes, with a twist and a twirl of his lamp. "They're all gone, if that's what you were wondering. Told them I hadn't seen you. Went the other direction; probably figured the monsters would get at you sooner or later." Thank goodness he seemed much sedated.  
  
Link glanced over the arch of his shoulder, hanging back from the ladder. "Hey, all! It's safe now! Let's shove off. And at a walking pace this time!"  
  
Naomi cackled. "Alright. Heave yourself up first, since you're already near topside. Go on! We'll follow."  
  
He gave an affirmative nod. Hands shuffled, feet jogged, and Link heaved his stomach over the rim of the cavern into the scathing night desert beyond. He started to say something; about thanking the Goddesses that whole fiasco was officially over. Something cut short his sentence. Unperturbed and assuming it was simply a couple fistfuls of wind-borne sand, she shrugged and beckoned Posie and Elaine to follow. She shut her eyes briefly(the girls mimicked) until emerging outside. So she didn't see what had really gagged Link until, as the old cliche goes, it was too late.  
  
The haunting yelp of the mischievous(and at times almost brutal with his joking) guardian Poe infuriated their ears. "Hee hee hee! April Fools'! And it isn't even April!"  
  
Naomi said something else, this time far worse than before, that made Elaine go, "Mom!"  
  
"Here we go agaiiiiin!" trailed off her voice as she began to make a dive at her daughter and make another break for it. This time there was no head start affront over her sisters. They were right there and wide awake, some focused into a teaming cluster from which steel rang loud as thunder, and the rest all carrying fanged sneers directed at her. This was a smaller group than that which had originally blundered after just the four of them, but she could see they were all slender and thick as whipcords and their eyes dazzled more with fury than they smoked under liquor. This here was a trained pack of guards. That lousy ghost was in for a royal thrashing if she managed to get away with her life...  
  
A scimitar cleaved the air. It had flown from the frenzied knot behind those who only now drew their swords for their traitor's throat. A Gerudo made a bronchitic noise as she watched her treasured weapon split the wind, and her averted attitude gave her no room to respond to the thrust that marred her torso. She fell, embracing her hips as a spurting torrent of red painted the soil. All of her sisters took significant steps back.  
  
Link blossomed from the center as gaps exploded between his enemies. He was roughly unharmed, except for the fact that his tunic was now twice as rumpled as it usually was. "I thought I'd taught you all your lesson."  
  
Funny, Naomi couldn't remember Link ever coming to the camp. It would have been the talk of the town if he had. Something just bordering on a faint memory spurred in her mind, of a prisoner escaping from his cell block and rending the entire Gerudo metropolis in half... but it was rimmed in the haze and psychedelic swirls of a dream.  
  
The bleeding woman crumbling into the sand docked her rage and drew back the leather thong tensing it. "You-little-jerk," came her words bathed in agony and vehemence. "You ought to know. When you-"-she said something that shouldn't be reprinted here-"-with a Gerudo, you-"-she said it again-"-with them all."  
  
Why where they standing around? Link had already dug himself his grave, she and the kids should have just taken off at that moment. They weren't going to get very far, but better a slim chance than none. The proverbial snowman wouldn't do very well back home, either.  
  
Another Gerudo lost her weapon to a Master Sword parry. Fighting would have been Naomi's personal last choice, as they were far outnumbered and she'd seen enough wanton violence for the night, but evil would buck and stomp where it would have so, and it was the job of the good guys to sedate it. The good guys. Who did she fight for now? Was it really the side of truth and justice? Hadn't she lived the best years of he life plundering the pockets of wealthy merchants?  
  
No. Her best were spent with Randy. Who had worked for the Royal Family at the time-and he had come to their abode in all legitimacy. And like it or not, by deciding to follow Elaine to the ends of the earth to make up for lost years-she'd indirectly welded herself into partnership with Link, the biggest goody-goody there'd ever been. So she guessed, only half by choice, she was working for the big boys at the castle now.  
  
She drew her blades and began to recklessly plough into the barrage of her former kinfolk.  
  
Steel gnawed flesh. One of the guards whined. Ooh, that felt good! Years of a pent-up desire for vengeance broke free now. She razed past two who linked arms. She wasn't sure if she'd merely broken apart their bond, broken their bones, or chopped off the offending limbs completely, but it was safe to say she'd gone a little mad. She laughed in cold insanity to see her sisters finally repaid for their atrocities.  
  
"Arrg!" cried one of the slowly rounding team. "No part of us is safe!"  
  
Posie had gone back to being the irritating and underfoot ankle recon. She was also setting her sights a little higher this time around- mainly, higher as in the backs of the Gerudos' legs. One slid to her knees and could not get up again without aggravating her thighs. This was a good momentary distraction while those in the immediate area gasped and tried to lug her safely away from the battle. Naomi was feeling particularly vindictive... but not so much as to abandon honor and attack those trying to save their friend. She mauled after those who still stood, making sure that they wouldn't have a scintilla of hope between Link, Posie... now Elaine... and her.  
  
The leader Gerudo sounded retreat.  
  
Amazing. Only a truly desperate leader of their kind would ever pull out. Unlike most cavalries, they weren't ones for believing that the draw-back could be the better of valor. The only way you'd ever cull that from one of the Desert Thieves was either a severe outnumbering, too many wounded or a force that simply could not be reckoned with; persay magic. Well, Naomi had plenty of that, and there wasn't a single soul among that militia who didn't now bear some sort of injury from this skirmish. Their sergeant screamed Gerudo epithets over the heads of her troops("Lawu-lawu gliorion!") and made sure the four of them got an earful of insults before the last pair of parachute pants vanished behind an earthen smokescreen.  
  
"Wahooo!" Posie made an uppercut into the air. "We did it! We kicked some Gerudo tail!"  
  
Link applauded. "Nice work showin' 'em what's what, gals," he nodded, impressed. "And you weren't half bad yourself, Naomi. C'mon! Give yourself a hand."  
  
She gave three sarcastic claps and groaned monotonously. "Whoop dee do. We won."  
  
"Hey, that's not a victory cheer! Come on. Huzzahs for LPEN!"  
  
"What did Navi do?" asked Elaine earnestly.  
  
"No, N for Naomi!" Posie filled her in. "I think Navi doesn't count because she's a fairy." She smirked mischievously. Had she been older, an outsider might've wondered exactly what kind of fairy she meant Navi was, but being the kid she was it was safe to assume she meant a winged one.  
  
"Oh! Speaking of Navi," Link reached over his shoulder and stuck his hand inside his backpack. He grouped about inside. "Hey! Glowball! Are you in there?"  
  
He felt the silky tip of one of Navi's vellum-fine wings and braced his fingers around it. Not making any effort to be gentle, he unceremoniously yanked the pixie up and gave her a few good shakes and threatened to play hacky-sack with her if she didn't wake up.  
  
She gave a banal yawn and blinked crusty eyes slowly a few times before she noticed she was dangling by one wing. Her head did a 90-degree twist and she began to beat furiously and snapped on her fay-light. Poised like a ballerina dancer and flickering in front of Link's face, she inquired, "What'd I miss?"  
  
"A couple of drunken Gerudos, a lesson in family history and a few really wicked brawls that practically left me minus an arm," he told her with the manner of someone relaying the weather. "Oh, and we've got a stowaway on our caravan, by the way. Navi," and the fairy revolved, "this is Naomi. Naomi, Navi the fairy. Does this work?"  
  
Navi returned to eye Link suspiciously. "How d'you manage to pick up these people, Linky boy? I swear, if you were any better at mingling you'd have flat-out transformation powers. And runs in the family too! Famous dad met average Jane mom; little sister adopted a Deku Scrub, you marrying a former Kokiri..."  
  
"Posie's best friend being a half-Gerudo..." he added nonchalantly. He twisted his wrists around while absorbing an almost nonexistent night sky.  
  
Navi didn't look a single percent taken aback. "I thought it was odd she knew so much," she taunted with her hands on her hips. "And I'm betting your little friend here is her long lost mother, no?"  
  
"Aye, they always said the Sages knew a lot. Sage of Forest, Sage of Fire, Sage of Water, Sage of Shadow, Sage of Spirit, Sage of Light. And the Sage of 'Hey-Look-Listen.'"  
  
Posie and Elaine cracked up on an instant.  
  
"Whatever," she shrugged. "Look, can you and the Three Mess-kateers quit the clowning and focus on what you're doing?"  
  
"We're not doing anything, though," retaliated Posie wryly. "Though we oughta be moving forward. Pressing on?"  
  
"Roger," huffed Elaine as she started chugging on. And she was allowed to do so, because as their situation was no longer urgent then they could move at their own, leisurely pace.  
  
  
  
The Wasteland was an exhaustingly vast stretch of territory best dubbed "Middle-Of-Nowhere" that could roll on for miles in any direction it wished, even those one could swear defied the laws of physics. Man, woman, children and fairy spent the next uneventful hour getting lost and finding their ways again, and all because that stupid ghost vanished during the middle of the fight. Fifteen of those were spent in angst over a sticky conundrum involving the crossing of quicksand. Then Naomi remembered a bit of obscure trivia about most quicksand being thin enough to be swim across. Link hurled most of his and the other's heavy supplies to the other side of the barrier and offered to take the first plunge. The sand squished uncomfortably filling his boots while he waded in, but he found that by floating on his back it was mostly passable.  
  
For the fact that she had intelligence roughly measured with someone twice her age, Posie did not find the prospect of diving into that snaky mess inviting. "Daddy," she whined playing with the buckle on her belt, "can't quicksand pull you down and make you suffocate?"  
  
"Only if you panic," Naomi answered for him. "It's just a lot of sand suspended in water. You wanna be like your dad, kid? Follow his lead! He understands."  
  
Quarreling something about getting muddy, she flopped onto her backside at the rim of the pit and frog-kicked over to the other side. Naomi almost made a disaster out of things when she had to ferry Elaine across, who was less than a fish to any kind of liquid. But they all managed to get to the bank in one piece, though covered in cakey gunk.  
  
"Well, if we're getting water quicksand holes, then at least we must be close to water," said Elaine optimistically. "And that means the river."  
  
"Hike on," breathed Link, pointing in the direction the river supposedly lay.  
  
"Yeah," chirped Posie, "and the sandstorms're dying down too. I'll bet we only have a little farther to go before we find the-"  
  
Her voice vanished into thin air as she unwittingly plunged into a crevasse that rang below with water batting against the sharp buttresses. The sudden shock of it made Link tumble headfirst down, too much of his body slung over the cliff. There was no point in grabbing anything as he fell even so close to the cliff; his palms would be shredded. His head pounded against a stone jutting out from the wall, and he closed his eyes in unconsciousness. Below Posie hit the water and was enmeshed in a life or death struggle to overcome the undertow, and didn't manage to see what made Elaine and Naomi fall. She was only assured that they did, and Elaine's arrowed form suggested she'd dived out of caliber in a heroic effort to make a rescue. She would have most certainly acted could she swim. She broke the surface tension in a cloud of bubbles, immediately now in peril.  
  
The last thing Elaine felt before blacking out was what felt like the weight of all of Hyrule Castle against her chest. She made frenzied efforts to kick to the surface beneath a stampede of white foam before her breath gave in.  
  
Posie knew that, with the current what it was, a deliberate plunge under would be certain suicide. But letting Elaine drown was cowardice and murder. And what was worse, Link had fainted on the way down, and he was bobbing around who knows where. But she could still see the beaten liquid where the other child had been dunked. Going against every will she possessed except honor, she swallowed what air she could and her head vanished under a turbulent blanket.  
  
In the ethereal green river, lit by stars and moon, Posie opened her eyes to an eerie drifting territory choked with river weeds and pearly gray stones. Hung upside-down and limp as driftwood, jetsam Elaine's skirt billowed with a gross blue motley. Luckily she was an easy find. Summing up the strength she could, Posie scythed through the current making snaily progress. There was an excess of murk that made it impossible to see too many feet ahead. Her cheeks began to turn purple as her supply of air ran low. She was forced to surface.  
  
Struggling to stay buoyant, Naomi spotted her rocket up.  
  
"Posie!" cried the distraught Gerudo. "Have you seen your father?! I can't find him anywhere!"  
  
"I have no clue! But I gotta rescue Elaine! She's drowning down there; she can't swim remember?"  
  
"Elaine!" Naomi shoved off a high piling of rock and barged against the slipping waters. "Where?!?!"  
  
"Down there!"  
  
"Right! You just do your best to survive, 'kay? I've gotta get Elaine!"  
  
"But what about Dad-"-she sputtered and spat a mouthful of cold and brackish river away-"-Daddy?"  
  
"Kid, if half of his stories are true this is cake to him! Look, every moment we waste in idle chitchat is possibly another death blow to my daughter! I know I was worried about him a moment ago, but I'm sure Link can hold his own! Just swim for it!"  
  
Reluctantly Posie backpaddled slowly for a few seconds, then was overtaken by a new rift in current.  
  
She tried to swim with the current, spreading her body wide to catch like a sail the incessant flow, crumpling up and dog-paddling when the stormy darkness ebbed. Wan moonlight glimmered overhead and illuminated hints of gold in her drenched and mucky hair. Never before had the stars overhead looked so devilish; they were high above and she was so lowly, down there... but the going seemed easier... she was getting used to the pressures exerted on her by the flood...  
  
Naomi swam up to her side, floundering under the weight she carried under one arm. Elaine's skin was waxy and her face was blue, but the if not slightly strangled sound of her breathing was a comfort no mind could storm up to pacify its soul. That just left one more thing to be checked off their lists: WHERE in heaven's name was Link?  
  
Ooh... the river was getting shallow up ahead. That meant they were nearing the basin where it emptied into Lake Hylia. Posie clipped under for a second and knocked her hip on something hidden but rather large and pointy. Mud-polluted water seeped into her smallish cut and stung. And still no sign of her father.  
  
Naomi tumbled over something. Although she did not wake, Elaine screeched as one of her shoes fell off and was eaten by the river. Dazedly Posie turned her head for a moment as it jumped past her. She went under again, this time stubbed her toe, and resurfaced into dark. And not just the ebony blue of night. Almost extreme blackness.  
  
Moiling heavily in the air were tiny, floating black objects. They looked almost exactly like the mage-light she had conjured earlier, but absorbed the bright oppositely of the way her spell gave it. They were pure and complete absence of any illumination. An aura shaped like a mass of bubbles surrounded the three. Just barely hazy outside of it was a tickle of blue... lightly veined wings pattered softly in the wind. A fairy? Navi! No, not Navi. Though they were of a similar hue, this creature was of a different tone, not like the yellow the fay she knew was. Where was it flying? Something pale as the moon, but with a mist of silver hair, beat beside it. It looked like a flying Kokiri... but that was silly. Kokiri didn't have the enormous, twenty-some-foot wingspan she did. Was it a goddess?  
  
A voice, near as tender as Saria's but speckled as an iceberg, rumbled in the minds of them all and turned their bodies granite. "You saved Xial, Hylean," she echoed, "So I save all of you. And do not worry about your other companion." Her lips parted to shine teeth brilliant as new powder snow. "Luckily for him, his belt caught on a low-hanging branch and he's been dangling over the water. I'll send him off with you. Good luck, my friends."  
  
Suddenly, the water fell away from them; or rather, they fell away from the water. They saw nothing outside of each other. Their voices were numbed, or perhaps it was their ears, for all was silent. In a dream brought on not by fever but favor, Elaine was told(and somehow remembered later) "...This will not be the last time we meet... but know the Guardian of Darkness and Xial watch you and guard thee..."  
  
**************************************  
  
Toranteya the Zora Prince was not a happy child. At least not at that moment. He had been playing a simple game of hide-and-seek with his younger half-brother, Brunilla(fondly called Bruno) when their grandfather the King informed him that he was to go to bed that instant; he had school in the morning. That was a preposterous proposition, seeing as his brother never had to go to bed on time(though he admitted, this was probably because he didn't go to school yet) and also because no one had been able to get any sleep since the Phantom had moved in right next door at the fountain. So he snarled and made his way to his bed chambers, where most other Zoras except for the King, his mother, and Bruno feared to tread. They were perfectly content with slabs of cool, wet stone for their beds, but he, only having half Zora blood, didn't find this at all comfortable. No, his room was decked in the finest downy covers and his bed puffed up like a marshmallow with all the covers on it. He was a popular Prince, true enough, though most everyone found him almost overburdeningly eccentric.  
  
Now something wet, and cold, and heavy struck him and he awoke with a start.  
  
At first he thought it was a half-drowned rat that had accidentally muddled through a corrupt magic zone, though rats were fatter and had little pink paws. This thing was brown head to toe, with red hair so greasy it repelled the dampness and a horrific mildewed wardrobe of the most clashing purples. No, it was a soaked Gerudo. He hadn't bothered to notice she'd just fallen out of the sky from seemingly nowhere. He just knew that the last thing he wanted was for Gerudo grime to taint his perfect sheets.  
  
"Auuuhg! Gerudo! Off! Off! Off!"  
  
Naomi coughed. Out one Dark World and into another. Apparently their mysterious and generous apparition had the intellect of a lump of iron for all her kindness. Either that, or she was bat blind. She began to rattle of a string of various curse words that surely, if she had been there, would have made Elaine go, "Mom!"  
  
"Gare! Oooh! Dough! Ger-u-do! Somebody help meeee!"  
  
"Shut up, you brat!" Naomi slammed her hand over the urchin's mouth. "I'm not gonna hurt you if you if you let me outta here! I didn't want to hurt you when I came in! I didn't even want to come here!"  
  
He bit her finger and she recoiled. Saucily the boy asked, "Then how'd you get in?"  
  
The boy propped himself up against his soufflé of pillows. Naomi vaulted herself off of his bed. "Look, kid," and she reached her arms out to him, "even I don't know what happened. All I know is this weird dragon lady appeared overhead and-"  
  
"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"  
  
"Aww no," she mumbled, "Looks like the rest of my party just gave one of your little friends a bit of a fright. Well don't worry. I know a couple of freaks, but I don't think-"  
  
"That was a shriek of delight, you dope!"  
  
"Oooooooh!" cooed an ear-splitting pitched female voice from several doors down. "Link, you are a naughty boy! You've been fooling me for far too long, yes you have!" Any Hyrulean guru could place that chirping as undeniably Princess Ruto, the four-eyed undine princess of Zoras. And almost a foully beguiling one at that. About the only man, human or otherwise that could withstand her charms was Link, at one time betrothed to her(not by his own choice, it ought to be said). So it was a sort of given the last thing he'd like to do would be plopped down on top of her bed. He would have preferred the river.  
  
"Heehee! And all this time I really thought you did like Saria! But here you are, you Don Juan, you!"  
  
"R-R-Ruto!" Link gasped in a strangled way that suggested Ruto's arms were constricting his neck. "Get off! I didn't-gasp!"  
  
Someone else shouted out in the typical peace of night.  
  
A hoary, burbling older voice, heavily obscured by a mustache(or the Zoran equivalent). "I say! What in blazes-good Goddesses! What disregard of Nayru is this?!"  
  
"Ahhhh! Fat fish man!"  
  
Elaine, you were so wonderfully articulate on the moment. Well, Naomi contemplated, at least she was awake and alert, and didn't appear to have suffered any immediate damage.  
  
"Hey! What's goin' on here?"  
  
"Owww! You're really bony! ...Wait a minute, you're a Zora! How...?"  
  
And all three of the others were accounted for. Fairi-whatever-her- name-was had at least seen them away from certain death. But there was no guarantee she'd severed them from trouble. Pestering a group of Zoras late at night, especially when you happened to be carrying a Gerudo with you, was just begging calamity.  
  
There was a gasp. Link staggered away from Ruto. The Zora royal rooms had no doors; Naomi could see him tumbling. Blue-hued Ruto, standing there perplexed and all swaddled up in seaweed, clasped her hands in a sort of prayer and talked to Link with her face tilted. "But Linky-tums," she mumbled, though still talking down to him as if he were a dog, "didn't you come to see your jewel Ruto?"  
  
"Ruto! Has it not gotten into your head yet that I don't like you?" His expression was sorry for being so candid; his eyes looked relieved. "I don't know how I got here! One moment I hit my head falling down the side of a canyon, and next I think I've gone through a rip and ended up in your room!"  
  
"Mom!" Dazedly Toranteya tossed off his covers and slunk up to the princess's side. His figure was human enough, but the backs of his limbs were a scaly blue and his sluicing fins draped behind him. They were translucent and thin, and their ends were dotted with little turquoise knobs that allegedly possessed the magic that let Zoras dive so deep. The boy had eyes as dark as any of his mother's kind, but his hair was a curly red more suited to someone of Goron decent. His freckles were of a normal color, not teal.  
  
Link edged back a few more steps and puckered his lips on a sideways glance. His eyes rolled halfway back into his head once he saw Toranteya, then he refocused them and let his lips free with a smack. "Ok, I'll bite." Flagrantly wafting his hand, he asked the ceiling that sparkled with the reflection of a puddle, "Do I know you?"  
  
"No you don't," Ruto filled quickly.  
  
"Are you sure?" Link gripped his chin. "Because you look awfully familiar. Ruto, you seem to know him." He looked at her. "What's this kid's name? Because I know I know that face."  
  
"Errm, he's, ah... Toranteya. But no one you'd care to meet, I'm sure." Ruto's voice clamored with urgency. "Just, ehh, another kid... he's, ah, half-Zora, but, really, not like that's a big ordeal these days, after that one kid; what was his name? I told myself cloud-dancing and energy swords to try and remember but I just can't, and..." ...And on an on she rambled! She was obviously trying to divert Link from something. Link could see very obviously he was a half-Zora, he'd met another one before that he'd tried to rescue from a dungeon. That face was hauntingly familiar. His face was round enough, but his eyes cringed with malice, a certain jumpiness from the unexplainable. Those lips were set in a bossy and rambunctious way, he looked like a soul who enjoyed telling everyone else what to do...  
  
Hold on!  
  
A faint, ugly melody touched their ears and they were all held captive for a moment. A voice as phantasmal as the wind itself bore upon it a rude drinking song, accompanied by buzzing plucks on an obviously mis-tuned mandolin. The noise was genderless and almost indecipherable, but it made a creaking squeak four times the annoyance and twice the pitch of nails raking flint.  
  
"Ack! Who hired an asthmatic canary to do the dinner entertainment?" In that second, interrupted by the boorish tune, Link had forgotten again where he had seen the boy before. He was not spared the moment to recoup his thoughts, either; Posie walked from the room downwind with hands locking ears shut and bemoaning the song. Ruto leapt to her toes to eyeball over Link's head and find out what made him start. She noticed Posie, and could do little to stifle her gasp.  
  
"You!"  
  
"Me?" The little girl was caught off-guard and removed her hands, ignoring the churlishly-crooned background "music."  
  
"Link, your daughter!" Ruto stumbled back.  
  
"Posie?" Link shrugged, palms open face.  
  
"Posie?!" Toranteya exclaimed.  
  
"Tony!" Posie strove to the side to make sure that too- familiar voice was not deceiving her.  
  
"Tony? Here? Zora's Domain? I think?" Elaine strode from the farthest of the four rooms in the hall, picking what appeared to be seaweed out of her hair. Then; "Good Goddesses to the Dark World! It is him! What's that creep doing here?"  
  
"Creep?! Watch what you're saying, you little wench, that's my son you're talking about!"  
  
"Hey! Don't talk about Elaine that way! And since when was Tony the Terrible your son?"  
  
"Wait. Ruto has a son. Any kid at all. You guys lost me at the last bend." Link pointed his fingers at a fictional fork in the road. "Would someone here who's in on the joke kindly explain the humor to me?"  
  
"Where's the funny? This is Tony! The single biggest blight to Posie and me's existence! The bossiest kid in all kindergarten!"  
  
"Wait a minute! You're the kid who was tossing me and Randy around last week, aren't you?"  
  
"Yeah!" Posie crossed her arms. "Not to mention the fact that he picks on me and Elaine almost every-oops."  
  
"Gotten considerably bolder now that your Daddy's here, eh, midge?" Tony gave a report pronged as lightning. "You may've gotten the better of me the other Friday, but I'll show you if you try that little stunt again." He rocked balled fists.  
  
"Woah!" Link pantomimed bracing his hands against the sides of two walls closing in. "Kids, easy!" He blared particularly at a miniscule hand he saw preemptively reaching for its sword. "Now Posie, I remember you saying something about the head groupie back at school, but what's this about. Y' never said anything about... chronic bullying and whatnot."  
  
Tony had a droopy, numbed stare that probably meant he'd understood less than half of what Link had just said. Aside from not picking up on a whole lot of the conversation on that day, seeming eons ago, but he had a considerably snubbed vocabulary. In comparison to Posie, naturally. A side effect of being read to from a novel every night(by her own choice, even more miraculously), she would ask every other minute, "Daddy, what's an 'orifice?'" or "Daddy, what does 'languished' mean?" The first few times she'd heard The Silver Sapphire, Link had done very little reading and much more explaining. He was much relieved(and a bit puffed up truth be told) when she stopped asking, obviously having memorized it all. So whereas most her age would go "huh?" if someone had told them to "Whet thy rapier and arm thy aegis," she'd nod and pick up her sword and shield. She could speak really flowery if she wanted too, but she mostly just stuck with typical, conversational Hylean unless she wanted to annoy someone. And very much did she want to annoy a certain someone that moment.  
  
"Well, due to some... superficial technical adversity, I've had some slight shortcomings in relaying to you the cowing efforts of one Tony Barakos, who since day one..."  
  
"Kid, stop it. You know it freaks me out when you do that. Yes, I know you're a smart kid, but keep it limited to something we'll all understand?"  
  
Link wasn't the one she'd been trying to offend. Clearing her throat and grimly slipping her hands behind her back, she murmured, "I, uh, sorta forgot to tell you about him."  
  
"Hmm. Well, that is a problem, then. I vaguely recall... Kakariko Village this morning... Miss Claire's boyfriend. He sort of mentioned this. Ever since school started, you say, he's been making fun of you?"  
  
"Oh, enough;" Ruto stamped her foot, "this isn't a sappy psychiatry convention. We can resolve this later. Link, I don't know how you got here-"  
  
"-And neither do I-" he interjected.  
  
"-But you are here, and your daughter is here, and your daughter's friend is here, and some mangy Gerudo worm is here, and there's nothing I can do about it. Toranteya, could you go ask your grandfather if he has some rooms to spare? Might as well be hospitable, even to that- thing." She pointed inside Tony's room, where Naomi still stood shivering.  
  
"Thank you, even though you don't deserve it, Zora guppy," sneered the ungrateful Gerudo.  
  
"Guyyyys; the kids; we got on their case and let's not make them get on ours," Link hissed through half-clenched teeth and lips.  
  
"Shut up!" he was snapped at in unison by both Ruto and Naomi.  
  
A dissatisfied, gurgling growl, vaguely accented, bemoaned from the final room at the far end of the hall. "Goodness gracious! First that- girl and now you, lad! What is it? Let your grandsire get his beauty rest..."  
  
That old ploy wasn't going to work on Tony. "Sorry, pops, but all the sleep in the world couldn't do wonders for your mug. Up!"  
  
The Zora King snorted. "Such indigence! Where hast thy royal manners gone?"  
  
"Don't gimmie none of that!" Onlookers in the room would see Tony bouncing on the portly fish man's pasty stomach. "Look! Mom needs a favor."  
  
"Whaaaat? Make it hasty, boy, make it hasty..."  
  
"Got any rooms? Link just showed up here, dragging along a Gerudo and a couple of girls I know from school. Yes, Gerudo. But she says that, since this weird Gerudo is Link's friend we have to be 'hospitable.' Whatever that means. Look, do we got places, or do we not got places?"  
  
'Tell your mother she can put the lot of them up in the High Guest Suites for all I care; I haven't the energy to deal with anyone now. I'm just trying to get to sleep, and ignore that dreadful noise..." The plump merman shifted to his side and rather unceremoniously dumped Tony off. He jarred against the floor but was for the most of it unfazed.  
  
He shook his head and beamed an interrogating look at the Zora King, giving garrulous fake snores obviously intended to ward the boy off. Sighing and shaking his head, he straightened out his chilled(and now slightly slimy) pajamas before he made his report to Ruto and the lot of them.  
  
"Um, yeah," he nodded, "Pops says you can put them up wherever you want, Mom. Where did he say was open...? 'High Guest Sweets' or something like that. Is that good?"  
  
"Ahh, it's perfect." Ruto folded her fins. "Those are our best rooms. Link," and she turned to her former fiancé, "I'm afraid that's by Zora standards, so the mattresses and such might be a little... hard," she warned. "There are no blankets, really, or pillows, but you can manage for the night, right?"  
  
"I'll manage," he massaged his forehead, "but what am I gonna do in the morning?"  
  
"Oh?" She inched behind him and put her webbed turquoise fingers on his shoulders. "Why? What's so important about tomorrow?"  
  
"Nothing, it's just that now I'm going to have to totally deto- "-he noticed her hands pressed upon him-"-Get your hands of my shoulders, please!" Irritated, she briskly responded. "Anyway, I was saying, now I've got no way of getting to Mount Ipanajou this way! Originally we were going to take the cave, but I guess we took the wrong cave because we came out in the Gerudo Valley, which was how we got tied up with her. And no, I don't find her any more affable than you do, but I've got no chance of her leaving me alone all because of Elaine! The kid with brown hair," he informed. "So then," making violent gestures with his hands in front of him, "we were going to get across the river, only the river was down inside this huge chasm no one told me about! And here I am now. No idea how we got here whatsoever. And how was your day, Princess?"  
  
"Save your sarcasm for the wench back home," Ruto uttered in choleric. "And my day I consider a matter of by own business; pardon. You didn't have to tell me all that, you know."  
  
"Well gee!" Link was furiously agape as Ruto strutted off, walking with such a wobble that it was obvious she was trying to be seductive. "I am trying to be friendly, and this is what I get? And hey, you, make another quip like that about Saria and I'll-wha! Where are you going?!"  
  
"Follow me and bring your posse if you want your lodgings." Ruto caught a blurred, bluish outline of Link as she flicked her neck a little, one of her peripheral and nearly-blind minor eyes evaluating him. "I'll be in a better mood in the morning if you still want to talk."  
  
"After the show you're putting up now, why the heck would I bother?"  
  
"At ease, soldier." Naomi knifed in-between him and Ruto, obscuring any eye contact they might attempt to make. "I think we're all testy. A bit of rest right now; that's the ticket. Some shut eye will set all our troubles straight."  
  
"I'll vouch for that," yawned Posie.  
  
Link shrugged in argument, but probably, he inwardly bemoaned, in was just another thing that probably ought to head off to bed.  
  
He looked around himself to try and determine where he was, never having seen this stretch of Zora territory before. Oddly absent from the walls were the rippling reflections of water, reminiscent of vastly spread spider webs. Like all places around the Domain, however, the humidity was a burden, almost stifling in summer days during the afternoons. Judging from the hollow sort of rattle his feet made when they hit the floor, and a distant sort of swishing from southwest and below, his estimate was that they were just above the throne room. Clefts in the grayer, calcium-streaked stone walls dipped off here and there, leading to large, open rooms where members of the royal personnel slumbered peacefully. Condensation clung to his skin and chilled his bones. Or perhaps it was just him; no one else shivering outwardly as he.  
  
"Brrrr. Kinda chilly in here, isn't it?"  
  
"Not by Zora standards, I'd think," sighed a weary Elaine. "Though it isn't very fun, I'll admit, to try to fall asleep while you're freezing to death."  
  
"Oh?" Ruto stopped; looked over her shoulder in a play of innocence. "Too cold? Well, perhaps I can spare an extra blanket from Tony's room. Hmm?" Link didn't like her cheeky, flirtatious little grin. It gave him the vague impression she was still trying to entice him. Which she probably was. Oh, was this the last place he'd choose to spend the first night off on adventure! Well, he could thwart a brigand of fangirls in the marketplace easily as he could dispatch an Anti-Kirby(which could be a feisty task when it wanted to be), so this was small-time. Now, why couldn't those blasted exotic princesses fall in love with other exotic princes instead of the guiltless knights?  
  
"Um, no, I think we'll be fi-"-A delicate mist brushed past his lips with his words-"-fine." He tried to shoo it away with another breath, only to double the volume of the cloud.  
  
"OK, this isn't right, I don't think," grumbled Naomi. She took a strand of her temple hair and crushed it, ending up with wet hair and a handful of minced ice crystals. "A few seconds ago, maybe half a minute, it was a vaguely bearable sixty-some degrees in here. Now it's shot down to what? Twenty? What's up with THAT?" She scanned, as if in plea to the ceiling, upward. A blue sphere of brilliance kicked along beside her shoulder and jubilantly brisked up into her face.  
  
"Not amusing, Navi," she mumbled aside from her first strain of comments.  
  
"...I'm over here." The lump of light teasing Naomi's nose had to wings. The true fairy gave her existence spotlight when she comically lifted up the rim of Link's hat and gazed around.  
  
Even Ruto embraced herself now. In a harassed sideways voice, she snarled two words: "Toranteya Doubon..."  
  
"Are you still here?" Posie more griped than asked when the half-scaly, half-flesh boy slyly showed behind their lot, from a bend they had just taken. "Maybe you oughta learn a few more useful tricks than that; like, oh, making yourself disappear?" Tony's ears turned a striking contrast of red to his blue fins.  
  
"Toranteya, I've specifically told you time and time again, no magic pranks!" Ruto's hand ran down from her forehead to underneath her chin, where it gently released. "I understand you're proud of the spells you've learned, but you can't go casting them on others for your own amusement!" She dared to look up and glare him in the face, over the mountains of the people following her.  
  
The temperature only dropped further, in rebellion.  
  
"Hey, cut it out, will you? You're bringing back a whole score of bad memories for her!" Link's thumb rocketed back in a sort of hitchhiker pose at Tony, then his finger whiplashed to Ruto. "Go harass someone else for a while. And yes, Ruto," he lampooned, pitching his voice in satire, "I AM standing up for you. You can drop the phony disbelief now."  
  
She shrugged, waggled her finger at Tony, and told him back off to bed. Men. Honestly. Who did he think he was? And she was thinking of both of them in that instance! At least one of them was easily dismissed. The one that was her son swung buoyantly around the corner dancing a jaunty little dance and humming the entrance melody of the treacherous Stalfos Pirates of the Deep Below. It was a catchy tune, though. His blue mage- light metronome-pulsed the rhythm while it played in front of his face.  
  
And Link, too, she would drop in only an instant or two. She rounded upon the two most special of rooms, reserved for guests of the highest social status. Or whoever happened to pop in when there was no vacancy elsewhere. Each contained one extra-large slab of rock-a bed to a Zora-covered in a thin, soft coat of moss and algae with a pile of dried kelp as a pillow. Miniature mesas jutting up out of the floor were their bedside tables. The cavern of Zora's Fountain spawned rare blue fires in areas where the water-magic force ruptured, and embers of those flames shed their cyan light in both rooms. The diamond knives of the Zora masons had etched the seal of Hyrule above each bed; a stylized eagle with the Triforce suspended between its wings. For one not accustomed to the reception of the aquatic peoples, it was a mighty unappetizing sight.  
  
"Now hold up a sec," waved Naomi, and she held up a barricade hand. "We've supposed to sleep in THERE? THIS is the best you have to offer?"  
  
"'S'cuze me, but those are beds, and we are dead tired. I know it's not polite to talk back, but mom, really! Be more... gracious, yanno? Dad always told me, 'You get what you get and you don't throw a-"  
  
"I know!" The Gerudo doubly cut the air with her palms.  
  
"So I guess I'll just be leaving you here, then," sighed Ruto who took off in her own direction. "The stairs to the left will get you to the throne room. You know you way out from there. And Link..." She flailed a little at him, and put on her best suave face. "I'll be down the hall, if you need me for anything." Wink, wink and her fins flashed out of site.  
  
Naomi put her fingers on her hips and chuckled. "Coquettish, hmm? She always been like that, Linky-boy?"  
  
"I wish I could say no to that," he mumbled tiredly. Then he yawned. "Well, I dunno about you and Elaine, but I think Posie and I will get off to bed." Demurely, Link rubbed his already-sagging eyes and turned, in military fashion, into the room. Briskly Posie followed. Her face pricked out of its path for a moment and focused on Elaine. She barely opened her mouth to say something-Link's collapsing face-first on the rock- solid bed startled her for a moment. She gave a toothy grin that her friend returned. With a sublime shrug, she whispered, "Good night."  
  
  
  
For a moment, Link silently cursed the Goddesses for conditioning. Back in the good old days, well, lying down on a stone or in slime was nothing. But over the years, he'd gone soft. Since Ganon had fallen, he'd never had to slumber in anything besides his cozy blue bed, layered with warm cotton sheets, and a goose-down cover for the upshot. No slipping around on anything green and moist, spending half the time finding a position that wouldn't make him slide off. No disturbing(and chilly) magical blue torches periodically spitting icy flakes at him. No wondering why Posie had actually volunteered to take the floor, no siree.  
  
Or maybe, he reflected, he already missed Saria.  
  
He sat up and mopped his brow, clammy with cold sweat. Link embraced his shoulders, trembling under the eminence of the enchanted cyan blaze. With contorted lips he blanked off into the rounded ceiling, softly baying a few of the nastier epithets he could think of against the frost, his location, and whatever was making that crazy caterwauling off in the distance. What on earth was it attempting to sing now? To a lazy ear it sounded like "Ninety-Nine Bottles Of Poe On The Wall," sung further off-key than the song should without being considered cruel and unusual punishment. He seriously wished he were back in his own(if not a tad obscure) comfortable tree-house back in the Kokiri Village. But that would be defeating the purpose of adventure, would it not? To get away from home and have some fun!  
  
Well, as Navi would have loved to remind him, again, it wasn't all Lon Lon Cream. When life nipped and fought, you had to swing your shield around and put up with it. "But," he surrendered, "I happen to be the purely offensive sort of guy."  
  
His pack was on the floor, lopsided and top-heavy with all of who knows what he'd managed to stuff in it. And while he'd been stuffing it full with his hodgepodge Posie had made her own contributions to the adventure's load, some of which he'd already unearthed in early searches. Mainly, the brilliantly purple star-flecked blanket she clung to at her bedtime. It had been a gift from Impa when she was born, a way of welcoming her warmly(no pun intended) to the world. Purple was the mascot color of the Shiekia, and to them it symbolized good health. The stars represented the night sky, or protection. Mostly, as a blanket, protection from hypothermia. Poor kid. She'd been so plain tired that she forgotten that part of her nighttime tradition, even surrounded by the frigid atmosphere the Zora's Domain kept. She'd probably have an easier night with a bit of warmth on her back. Link had a little exhausted smile and bent his worn legs to lift himself up of the stone. He hunched over the massive configuration of sturdy, traveling cloth and lifted the square covering the poorly-organized inside of the pack.  
  
He squashed a pair of glass bottles to the side and brushed away the messy map(which had white flakes pouring out of its sides) to show the silky-looking piece of fabric. He pinched a flabby fold and lifted it straight out like a large kerchief, and threw it over his shoulder. He swiveled over on his knees and looked casually over to close the sack, and noticed what had been lying beneath the blanket-his ocarina. He realized just how stupid he'd been that day-they hadn't needed to hike up to the volcano, they could have jumped there on an instant. And in the desert? He could have made it to the sanctuary of the Spirit Temple with a few simple notes. Unfortunately no such melody existed that could take him to the Scholar's Tomb.  
  
But there was one that could null the pangs of loneliness within him.  
  
Link circled the stone bed to the other side where Posie was amazingly sleeping, and he let the blanket drift gently over her. He lifted her up of the ground for a moment, tucking the sides of the blanket underneath her, stroking her hair-he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and sighed, "Sweet dreams, kid." He took the edge of the stone as his chair, rather than lying back down and attempting to fall back asleep. In his hands was the blue sweet potato he'd swiped from his backpack-ever so quietly he put the mouthpiece to his lips and gave a tiny blow, so the notes just barely had force to escape. F, A, B... F, A, B... F, A, B, E, D, B, C, B, G, E(low), C(low), D(low), F...  
  
He took the instrument from his mouth. A congealing breath collected in front of his face. Heavily the sound of the air rushing through his lungs echoed, his eyes staring of into silence...  
  
"Hello?" he spoke, to no one visible. Outside of the seal vacuumed around his body, no sound emerged from the recesses of his throat. Equally he searched for a response none but he could hear. His tongue clicked slightly as he swallowed a mouthful of nervous slime and repeated, "Hello?"  
  
Softly he was returned by a tired, nonchalant voice, ricocheting like a Mystery Seed fired from a schoolboy's pea shooter. "Hello, Link," Saria chuckled wearily.  
  
"Saria," he stated, closing his eyes and reaching out into what was empty, almost expecting to feel her there. He frowned a little when she wasn't.  
  
"Couldn't sleep without your little security blanket, could you?" Saria sarcastically-but obviously wornly-asked. Link started a gurgle that might have been a "Yes," but he was cut off. "Don't feel bad about it. I couldn't either. It's really something different, without you for once..."  
  
"Tell me about it," he lamented. "How was your day, anyway?"  
  
"Dreadfully boring," was her straight answer. "Right after you left I took Epona and rode across Hyrule Field to reach Castle Town. I attended Rauru's service."  
  
"Which passage?" Link asked, meaning from the Treantè.  
  
"Would you believe Cairn and the old mine?"  
  
"Oh no," Link smiled, knowing that was probably the worst possible story he or Saria could have heard that morning. The well-known account was of a Goron named Cairn, who found a mine brimming with delicious jewels. He kept returning to it, and every day for three years had precious gems for each and every meal. Then one day, the volcano erupted, and blocked off his mine. But his tastes had grown so cultured he choked on any normal rock. The moral? Never take anything for granted. You never realize how much something means to you unless it's taken away. "Well, I'm sorry that didn't go over well. What did you do after that?"  
  
Now she sounded like she was starting to cry just a little. "I went and splurged on a bunch of things in the market place, and spent the rest of the day fixing up an absolutely gigantic dinner. I soon realized no one was there to eat it, so I went out and invited in all of the Kokiri. They kept me company, at least. After that was done, I sat down and picked up the first book I saw on the coffee table. And what do you think it was? The Silver Sapphire. I think the Goddesses are trying to punish me for letting the two of you go so easily, you know?"  
  
Link was morose, but he couldn't help but crack a grin. "Well, wait till you hear all about today's excursions."  
  
"Bad?" Saria snickered.  
  
"Utterly insane," Link replied.  
  
"Do tell. I know it's cruel of me, but I'll admit to taking a laugh or two at other's expense."  
  
"I don't blame you! You've had Atahl for a fairy all your life, haven't you? Besides. The sheer lunacy of today is enough to send anyone into hilarity, or at least to make them go 'hmmm.' OK. We started out in Kakariko village, didn't we?"  
  
"That's what you told me you were going to do. And...?"  
  
"Well, we met up with Miss Claire's boyfriend and I stopped to chat. Right in the middle of our conversation, Posie and Elaine take off! I try to follow them, cause a complete uproar in the village, and hear this GIANT clamor coming from the potion shop. I run off and I find the potion shop in a mess, destroyed by a little fairy that Elaine accidentally set free. Don't ask me how they got there that fast, either. Well, I give them a talking-to and we're off again. Up the mountain. Mobbed by Tektites. Finally reach the city, and we find out that Twinrova's been there!"  
  
"Woah," nodded Saria off in the forest, shocked.  
  
"So we get a couple tunics on loan from Darunia. Up into the volcano crater! There's this crazy earthquake and Posie gets lost. Elaine and I spend a couple minutes digging through rocks to try and find her, when suddenly there's a huge explosion that throws us back! Posie, it seems, discovered a miniature cavern and met up with an unruly baby Dodongo. We take a few minutes to heal. Then we meet up with Lizafos! I beat one up, Elaine steals one's dagger and beats it up, they're done with." Link paused and inhaled quickly. "Right?"  
  
"If you say so."  
  
"So," Link continued, "we go down the passage that's supposed to lead to Ruto's cave. We pass through a cloud of weird fog. End up in the Gerudo's Valley! No-"-he put out a hand, even though Saria couldn't see it to be halted-"-it CAN get worse. The girls convince me to go cross-dressing and sneak through. We meet up with this outcast Gerudo, who calls herself Naomi. Appears she had an affair with a man from the outside a few years back. Got her in trouble. Got him in trouble too. Then I found out, this man was none other than Randy Parkerstine yourself."  
  
"You're kidding!" gasped Saria. "Does that mean that Elaine-"  
  
"-Is half Gerudo? Oh yeah. You'd better believe it. I've not been able to shake Naomi since we met her, but she's nice enough. She helped us- a lot-in getting through the desert. She knows it very well. Then we fell into the river, and I, uh-hit my head and got knocked out. When I wake up, I've landed straight on Ruto's bed."  
  
"And how in the world did you do that?!"  
  
"Wish I knew," Link shrugged. "Right now the Zoras are loaning us a couple of beds. Posie and I nabbed one room, Naomi and Elaine the others. And it's cold, and it's slimy, and I REALLY wish I were home right now."  
  
"So do I, Link," Saria moaned, "So do I."  
  
"Well, I suppose it's not so bad. It's not like I lost the ocarina or anything. And I'm glad I can still talk to you like this-the way we used to." Happily he recounted the warm memories floating around in his mind. "It makes me feel a lot better. But of course... it's not the same as really being with you."  
  
"I know," mumbled Saria. "But I still love you, Link. I'll love you no matter how far away you are. I'll love you and Posie both, and with my love, maybe I can push your mission a step closer to succeeding."  
  
"A nice, romantic notion, but I have doubts about that one. A little hope never hurt anyone, though."  
  
"Nope." Saria tried her best to seem happy and brisk, for Link's sake. "Never did." 


	10. Water And Ice

(CAN((Chapterly Author's Note)): Wow, the last chapter got away from me. Originally all of this was going to be a part of the last. Hey! I now have every chapter penned down in its entirety of what it will be, thanks to my last blunder. Hopefully I'll make no more overly-ambitious mistakes like that. For those curious, the singing... oddity that's enjoying tormenting our heroes and anti-hero is indeed what I have named myself, Freezair, after, but I am not one of them. Freezair Mistfield SilverEye is a radically different entity from the Freezair, though the Freezair is also one of my characters. ((Lost? I thought so.)) And no, I did not get Freezair from Freezzards. I could tell you where she originally came from, but you'd probably laugh and point at me and say "Ha ha! YOU used to make up your own POKèMON?")  
  
(Whoops. Never mind that. But hey, bonus points if you catch all three Star Wars refs in this chapter!)  
  
Spinning Slash, Chapter 10: Water and Ice  
  
"Daddy, Daddy," Link felt a nudging at his shoulder. "Daddy... it's time to get up..."  
  
Drowsily he opened one eye and a blurry picture came into focus of a flaxen head with sea-crystal eyes. He opened the other and the blurry image vanished, replaced by a near-perfect one of Posie in her entirety. She was knocking her palms into his shoulder and harking him. She turned to his clearing face and questioned with the same word she'd been repeating like a broken record: "Daddy?"  
  
Link yawned and inhaled a small mouthful of algae, coughed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He sought some purchase for his palms on the cold, slippery rock, to shove himself up while still half-asleep. His shoulder grasped a glowing bruise and his skull got a good rattling on the first attempt. Getting the wind knocked out of him wasn't his idea of the perfect start to a day, but it did wake him up. The second time he met with considerably more success and allowed him a nice, full yawn, without the threat of swallowing something slimy. He didn't ask how Posie had managed to climb up the rock that was certainly twice her height, especially when the mesa above it was covered in pond scum, but he was still too overly sleepy to think anything but simply thoughts. He puts his arms around her and drew her in: "Morning, baby. Sleep well?"  
  
"Aside from the floor being cold and moist, and the fact that it was hard as, well, a rock-yes. You?"  
  
"Ah, all well, I guess. I talked to your mother last night. She misses you. So do your best so she can look forward to us coming back, yes?"  
  
"Of course," Posie replied. There were a few seconds of plain silence while Posie simply sat there, gazing out the doorless door while she sat in Link's lap. Then she ticked her face up to look at his and asked, "Do you mind fish for breakfast?"  
  
"Fish?"  
  
"Yeah. The King's got breakfast all ready for us down in his royal hall, though most of it is fish. Or seaweed. Elaine and Miss Naomi are already down there. Bruno came up here to get us, and he helped me up on to your bed. He's still waiting for our answer, so... what should we do?"  
  
"Bruno?" Link rolled the name, putting emphasis on the "R." "Who's Bruno?"  
  
"The little Zora-I got put in his room last night by the... woman with dragon wings is the best thing I can find to call her. I can't pronounce his real, Zoran name, but most folks call him Bruno. He say's his Tony's younger brother, but he's a lot nicer than Tony. Though it could be due to the fact I'm almost sure he's only Tony's half-brother, because he's full Zora."  
  
"Really! I still want to know since when Ruto had one son, let alone two."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Link turned more than a little red. "Well, ah, you see, Ruto's the one who-you remember how I told you about the princess I had to save, and who would only give me the Sacred Stone she held if I-um, agreed to marry her?"  
  
"Oh yeah... I remember that!" Posie giggled. "I can't imagine she was happy when you dumped her."  
  
"Yes, but, I had an excuse. SHE had to go up the Chamber of Sages and help protect Hyrule from there. Now if only she could've stayed there, eh kid?" He laughed and lifted her up into the air before his face, before hugging her tightly and smiling broadly. "That would've solved both our problems!"  
  
"Yup! But you told me that after that Zelda sent you back in time, and turned you back into a little kid, and restored all the Sages-"  
  
"-And so on and so forth. I've taught you too well. You've memorized every tale I've ever told you to the letter."  
  
"...Now that I think about it... if the Sages had remained in the Chamber, it would have only solved your problem. Because if I recall what she told me correctly, Mommy-"  
  
"Oh yeah." Link turned slightly more passive. "Ah, but thinking about that sort of stuff is for the philosophers and prophets, neither of which am I or you. Breakfast does the King offer? Then I say, to breakfast!" He stood up while Posie slid down the side of the stone bed, pantomiming holding out his sword and pointing in the direction of their next path.  
  
Waiting for them was the little Bruno, an aquatic child of about three with green-blue freckles all over his skin, which was white and yet blue in the same way the faintest wisps of clouds were transparent, and let through a little of the sky. Oddly for a Zora, he wore a red-gold robe that looked to be well waterproof, but faded as the dyes in it slowly leaked. His eyes took on a little milky fade to them every once in a while when his third eyelid blinked, out of sync with his foremost two.  
  
Posie swaggered up to him in the familiar way a friend might, but then actually curtsied, and when she stood straight up she boomed, "Downward to the dining chambers, Your Highness!" The kid returned with a bow, less deep of one, and led her off with a forward kick. So just which one of them was in charge? Link laughed scratching his head in bewilderment. He set off behind them.  
  
Bruno took the two of them down a series of low-hanging stone halls, their ceilings sparkling and painted with a magic mural. It mimicked the way light toyed around on water, dissolving in it to make an entirely different liquid substance. There was no water up here and that came as bit of a shock to Link, but he figured that the amphibious Zoras could probably go through the night not bathed in the pure sea below. He skipped his fingers over the beaded walls and the enchantments drifted from the barriers to his body, netting him in the sparkly web a lake diver wore. He took away his hand and was land-bound again. He teased the enchantments, poking them for a second, withdrawing, and then stabbing again to strobe their ocean-borne fires over his body.  
  
"Please don' pway wiv da espements," Bruno sweetly chided. It hit every nerve Link's mouth possessed. He was way, way, WAY too cute.  
  
"Yeah," Posie agreed. "It'll get stuck on you, and you'll have to wander around like that."  
  
Silently Link stopped. He hadn't even seen either of them turn around. And people thought adults had eyes on the backs of their heads?  
  
In sharp contrast to the almost tunnel-short passageways they'd been burrowing through, Bruno led them out into a magnificent corridor with a top higher than the roof of Lord Jabu-Jabu's mouth and teeth to match. It didn't need a chandelier, because an array of gorgeous plump limestone stalactites grew down for decoration. One of the few pieces of actual furniture Link had ever encountered in Zora's Domain (admittedly, the first and only one so far) sat in here, a sturdy hardwood table with red velvet tablecloth that had miraculously stood the test of mildew. The King Zora had his spot at the head, while Ruto was just a seat to his left. There was a break immediately after her, and then Tony, wearing only a pair of hilarious pink swim trunks. He was scarfing his breakfast with an unusual expedience. Until Link remembered-it was Monday. He would have school. Good thing he'd told Saria the night before they left to explain to Miss Claire their situation.  
  
Naomi took a fork to a green sushi roll(a pair of abused chopsticks discarded on the floor by her chair), beckoning Link and Posie with her mouth full. "Mmm! Mmm!" was the noise she made. Painfully she swallowed without chewing much. "Hey! Over here, guys!" With her fingers she picked up a dried, light pink and stiff strip covered in flecks of pepper. She took a bite out of the chewy, salted fish. "Food is amazing!"  
  
"Agreed. Try some of the little seaweed crackers; they look kinda gross but I think they're pretty good. They have an odd tang to them. But yummy." Elaine had a plate heaped high with an assortment of foreign and fishy looking foods.  
  
Bruno ushered Link into a seat by Elaine; Posie was taken to a raised chair that had not but mismatched purposefully, but now its oddity was a convenience. He offered them to help themselves and skittered off to his own little niche by Ruto. Link wondered a tad why Bruno sat closer to the King than Tony and why he was the only one wearing a robe, but there was a delightfully seafaring waft cloistering the table that deserved his immediate investigation.  
  
Now that all his breakfast guests gad arrived the Zora King tried to strum up some friendly conversation. "So, Link, your friends here tell me you're going to Mount Ipanajou. Can't fathom why, it's a dreadfully cold place. But you've gotten a bit detoured, have you?"  
  
"Yeah, crazy, isn't it?" Link shrugged. He was really more interested in devouring a few of those little squares of salmon, speared on toothpicks with slices of avocado. "Your hospitality's been Goddess-sent, but soon as we leave here we've got to backtrack quite a ways up the river- "  
  
"I'm a generous fellow, you know. I can help you reach the mountain and you won't have to retrace your steps."  
  
"Really?" Link squeezed a rice-stuffed piece of sushi and added it to his plate. Another went straight to his mouth. "Huh do we do thathf?"  
  
"By doing us a favor," grinned the Zora king.  
  
"Ah, there's the catch," whistled Navi, who had followed behind Link for most of his journey through the Zoran catacombs and now floated innocuously around his head.  
  
"Well, you won't believe what we here at the Domain have gotten ourselves into now," the King filled them it. He was significantly better with his chopsticks and elegantly lifted a piece of raw fish to his mouth. "Strangest thing. One morning I'm sitting at my throne and my grandson Bruno here informs me that someone is waiting for my calling. I ask who those who are wishing for my audience name themselves, and who do you think it is?"  
  
"Can I make a guess?" asked Posie. "Was it a pair of witches named Twinrova?"  
  
"Yes! Such a bright little girl. How did you know?"  
  
"Well, the same hags were bugging the Gorons earlier, we learned. Bribed 'em so they could make a flyby in their city. And they sent a team of Lizafos on us. What trouble did they have for you?"  
  
"Oh, that was exactly what they did to us! They claimed they had made an adjustment to good, and wanted to prove that they were no longer a threat by zooming around Zora's Domain for the day. I didn't buy that-mumbo- jumbo for one second. Waved them away like a couple of Keese."  
  
Elaine put down something she was just about to stuff to ask, "Were they OK with that?"  
  
"Are you kidding? They wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, no matter how many times I gave it to them! For the rest of the afternoon I saw them puttering about our home, scudding it up-I didn't actually see them do anything harmful, and all of my people confirmed they were clean-but I can't shake the feeling they were up to something evil."  
  
"And that was all?" Were those waffles Naomi spotted among that sea(no pun intended) of delicacies? Something considered vaguely normal? Heaven help her poor heart. She hadn't had waffles in an eternity. "Did they just leave after that?" No, they were some sort of kelp wafer-but they smelled honeyed. She took a few to crumble on her crab salad. She hadn't had crab salad in quite a while, either.  
  
"We thought so. Then reports came back the next day of an unusual happening in the Fountain Cavern-the very deepest recesses of it were starting to crystallize again; they were turning back into ice. No one could find the source of the chill. All of the blue fires were still contained. Slowly more of the cave became incased in snow. Three days later, it appeared-the Phantom."  
  
That one caught all four patrons off guard. With a mirroring you could set your watch by, they exclaimed: 'The Phantom?"  
  
"Nobody knows what the Phantom is. Nobody dares to find out." The King failed to see the shine appearing in his grandson's eyes, a bad sign in most small children but especially treacherous in Tony. "But every night it sings. Horribly off-key. The rudest songs, too. All about..." he leaned toward Naomi's ear, she being closest, and mumbled, "...Prostitutes and drunkards." The Gerudo didn't look shocked, though when she passed this message on to Link, he did. The King didn't have to remind Ruto. She already knew. Too well.  
  
"We can't get to sleep at night because of the Phantom, and we all worry about the things our children will pick up out of its songs. We all pray at our bedsides it'll go away. Quickly. Already it's taught most of the young Zoralings a dreadful new song, some horrendous mockery of the national anthem it made up."  
  
"I know that one!" interrupted Tony, with a hint of cheerfulness that got a dirty look from his mother. "Errm, but I won't sing it, ever, because Mom and Grandpa told me not to. Yes."  
  
Posie had a right to note him with skeptic's eyebrows. Tony Ba- Doubon obeying rules was an unheard of phenomena.  
  
"So," the King tried, "Here's my deal. You and yours can enter the cave and get rid of that atrocity in there. I'll send one of my personal best men-or in this case, women-off with you into the forest around the Fountain. There are booby traps in there that you'll need her help to skirt around. Once you get past that line of fire, so to speak, she'll leave you, but you merely need to make it through the springs and the Nymph's territory, and I think maybe a bramble crowding, and then you'll come to a small lake. In that lake is a colony of Zoras even older than our own, and they have expert geographers. They can take you to Ipanajou. Normally they demand their privacy, and if you just approach them without tact they'll maul you, but before leaving my guard Knashi will give you the gift that will make you recognizable as allies to the Zoras. Even your little... tan friend here..."  
  
"I heard that," whipped Naomi, her eyes catching the King as he sized her up.  
  
"I wasn't aware you'd visited such a wide spectrum outside your own kingdom, Your Majesty," awed Link while taking the last shard of a seaweed wafer from his plate. "I always though you were a bit of a homebody."  
  
"Well, for diplomatic purposes I had to make the long trek from here to the colony in the forest. And it was harsh, let me tell you! Such an ugly, dry land until you get to the lake. Even the springs you encounter are disgustingly warm. My daughter and I were hoping to arrange a migration from parts of our somewhat crowded homes to the open waters of the lake, called Lake Lolita. It's almost twice the size of Hylia, but they're sister lakes."  
  
"After you got to the lake," Link laughed, finding the name of Lolita somewhat familiar, "was it a nice trip?"  
  
"It was atrocious!" Link shrunk back like wet wool, sorry he'd asked. "The bargains didn't go over at all. I got sick from eating an under-ripe Auraberry there and to top it all off, Ruto met a shady old Octorok shaman there who specialized in disguise charms. She purchased some half-rate transformation pendant-"-Ruto was already biting in with a "Father!" but it was too late to stop the old fish-"-and used it to turn herself into some vampy-looking young human girl with black hair, dark black eyes, near perfect skin-you can bet how quickly she was out seducing human boys! I think to get over her loss of you, Link," the King made a piteous nod.  
  
Naomi gazed from Ruto to the boy farthest from her, Tony. "I can guess."  
  
"Oh yeah? What about him, then?" Elaine made out Bruno with her fork.  
  
"Toranteya is not full Zora; therefore he is not a legitimate heir. I allowed my daughter to keep him, but only because I did not want to see her upset if I were to remove him. For a while she had a coupling with a man of my picking that resulted in Brunilla, but that didn't last long... I can't complain really, I now have my heir. I can't do anything about the fact that my people are more enamored with Prince Toranteya than they are the rightful Prince Brunilla, but even a king's power has its limits, you know?"  
  
"Where is the little scumball, anyway?" Posie surveyed the table curiously. He and his brother seemed to have taken off.  
  
Ruto stunned and confused them all for a moment by leaping up like a frog, slamming her palms into the table and cutting her gaze to the door. "Goddesses, I should have learned by now not to let them out of my sight," she crowed quickly. "I hope they haven't gone off to try and fight the Phantom again-"  
  
"I think he's just jealous that we don't have to go to school today," wondered Posie, standing up in her chair to catch the view over the table-top.  
  
Link summed up the Zora King in his high seat at the table. "Sir, you've got yourself a deal. Now, show us the way!"  
  
  
  
A few breaths of the slightly stale air in the Fountain Cavern were enough to deter even the steadiest adventurer.  
  
It was a very brown, muddy place, where water rained from the ceiling in a constant stream and the fragile soda straw cave formations were prone to falling and causing concussions upon the unwary. Too loud of a noise could cause the clotted walls to crumble and slide, or a battering of needle-sharp pieces of limestone to puncture backs. In days past, whenever Ganon had strapped his saddle to Hyrule's back, the cave froze over to indicate his evil presence, and it earned the nickname Ice Cavern. In a few parts within the cave there lay corrupt magic zones, places where power went haywire and its effects became totally random. This could jolt- start everything from sudden apparitions of many mismatched socks to ten- year leaps to the past. Within the cave, it created and influx of raw energy that sprung into life as magical, cold blue fire. Though it was believed that these zones were originally put in place by Ganon himself, they provided a useful and infinite source of temperature and light to the Zoras.  
  
Navi was having a hard time staying airborne in front of Link's face. Dewdrops kept dripping from the roof and knocking into her wings, sending her cartwheeling over in the air and careening into hanging calcium creations. Nervous cracks jettisoned from the areas where she impacted, but it wasn't enough to make anything break.  
  
"Perhaps we oughta let whatever it is stay. If it can tolerate this place, it deserves some merit."  
  
Naomi shaded her eyes as she looked around-from what, Goddesses knew. The world was sucked into vacuum black barely ten feet in the cave. "Strange as it's gonna sound comin' from a Gerudo, I gotta side with the Zoras in this case. I dunno how quickly you fell asleep last night, Linky Boy-hopefully I can get by on all of the three hours I got. That Phantom's a menace! Sooner we oust it, sooner we get out of here."  
  
"The ground here is permanent muck. How long will this take?" Elaine seemed to be fighting herself upward. Everything below her ankles had disappeared.  
  
"Once you find the Phantom, get rid of it and my father will make sure you're seen off. And while you're at it, could you drag out Toranteya and Brunilla for me? Tony's managed to avoid school for the day, I daresay, but I'd like them back in time for lunch?"  
  
"Sure thing, Ruto," Link answered chipperly.  
  
"This is soooooo disgusting," whined Posie, who took a step forward and fell in up to her knees in swirling pink mud. "I think I'd rather see this place when it's frozen. At least you don't have to get all slimy."  
  
"Oooooh no you don't," advised Navi. "I came in here with your dad the first time it turned to ice, and lemmie tell ya something! Freezzards, everywhere. Keese swooping in and out of blue fires and biting at the arms of passerby. Icicles thick as Elaine's body and sharp as swords plummeting from the ceiling. And right in the center of everything, an enchanted stalagmite outfitted with spinning blades. If that's your idea of a good time, you're welcome to it! Just don't bring me."  
  
"Nobody asked you to come, if you recall," retaliated Elaine as she dragged on through the sludgy floor.  
  
Link ducked beneath a low crystal. His shoes were noticeably clean. A pair of clownishly large golden devices he'd stocked on his boots clicked and whirred in a peaceful, magical way. Metal wings spasmed slightly by his ankles. He'd never been into the cave when it was its normal temperature, but the instant the Zora king described the mud sloughs inside, he'd reached into his backpack and snapped the curious-looking footwear into place. "Ooh, Mr. Fancy Hover-Shoes," Naomi had mocked. "Tell me, do you sing when you fly, like a little birdie? Tweet tweet! Ha ha ha!"  
  
He called her a desert-dwelling sand worm. She reported by calling him a pointy-eared, pallid-faced, primly-decorated and purely Hylean punk. Posie noted that Naomi had some particularly fine alliteration, and then called them both nuts.  
  
The four of them quickly descended into an artificial night so thick it could choke. The still air had a smell upon it, of mushrooms and mold. Link reached for something and held it up-a clear crystal containing a sphere of rabid fire. That alone could not provide enough light to show them their way, so he grouped back and took out a twig surrounded by the salty-warm odor of Deku wood. He touched the tip of the triangular crystal to the twig's-a thin thread of fire from the center streamed along one of the crystals' inner facets and spewed out as a red, hungry flame that gave light and heat on more levels than one. In its light the slowly flowing cavern ground looked like a shiny river of blood. The sticky, warm way it wrapped around didn't help reassure those closest to it that it wasn't.  
  
"Wow," marveled Link, looking around. "I never remember it getting dark in here so quickly. Still here everyone?"  
  
Four voices chorused to fill the roll.  
  
"Good." He nodded and gave his nod of appreciation. Navi by his shoulder bobbed to add her little bit of glow to the cave, otherwise dressed in black and now crimson.  
  
"Where are we?" asked Naomi, backing up to get closer. It was probably wiser, when it was so hard to see, for everyone to remain tightly together-  
  
"I think we're getting close to the first big clearing, right up this way. Used to be filled with all sorts of nasty stuff, when this place was cold, but I don't think this floor could support any of the gunk I knew." His torch switched hands. The cave burrowed under quickly. The rumors you'd here from the postman and an occasional Gossip Stone would make the cave out as being rather level, a sort of silly prospect when you through about the real nature of caves. He was thinking now, and he thought about the entrance to the first room. If his memory wasn't failing him, there was going to be a severe drop soon...  
  
"Hey, Posie," he called out to his daughter in front, "keep an eye out. The ground's gonna drop away soon..."  
  
"Gotcha," she acknowledged.  
  
Hearing what Link had said, Posie carefully lifted up her feet and found them the nearest purchase she could. She knelt there, and slowly fell to her stomach. She was going to get slop all over the front of her tunic, but it wasn't like she hadn't already shown her penchant for getting messy. No, the floor here wasn't quite of quicksand consistency, so she couldn't swim it. But it seemed to be becoming shallower, and it was slippery, no doubt. She would slide along on her stomach.  
  
"Posie, what are you doing?" Elaine asked disbelievingly. "You look like a mud-skipper."  
  
"You heard my daddy," she explained as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "If we're going to have to slide down, might as well make it fun."  
  
Elaine shrugged. Why resist? She went down too. Now how did one move in this position? She set up her arms in a crooked, spidery way by her head, like a Tektite's. She scrunched up one foot behind her and dug it in, scooting herself forward. Her arms climbed along and tried to stay upright. Posie was doing a sort of frog stroke to shalom onward.  
  
Naomi chuckled and held her face. "What a bunch of weird kids," she breathed. Specifically to them she said, "Not the most effective mode of transportation, now is it, girls?"  
  
"We'll make do," replied Elaine.  
  
Link lifted his torch forward and laughed when he saw the kids slinking along in their strange, wormy fashion. It actually looked... kind of fun. Were he not in his Hover Boots, he would have tried it. But as it was, his feet would float up a few inches behind him. Actually, he'd never tried laying down wearing Hover Boots... would his whole body float? An experiment for another day.  
  
Posie tobogganed ahead through the sluicing floor, chin coated with mud and hair dimmed to a messy brown. Mostly, she pushed off with her feet. Her hands were preoccupied swimming around on the floor, detecting the upcoming slope. The ground was suddenly heading southward, it was obvious, but there wasn't quite yet the great fall into the cavern she was looking out for. An unwelcome familiar shape settled on top of her head, settling in the center of her cowlick.  
  
"Thanks, Navi, I really needed a head lamp," she moaned, voice frosted with sarcasm.  
  
"I don't need any of your smart talk now," Navi replied with an equal amount of facetiousness. "I can't fly in this place. It's way too humid. If you don't mind, I'm going to rest on your heard for a little while."  
  
"Pick a different caravan, Glowball. Caravan. Caravan. Run in fear from the little girl using big words!"  
  
"Sorry, but you're the sloppiest of the bunch. No one else wants me getting them all wet."  
  
"That doesn't mean I..." She groped forward. There was nothing there. Her elbow flexed downward... a swiftly running declivity. A marathon of mud. She silenced herself and managed a small snicker. "Y'know, on second thought, go ahead, Navi. I don't mind."  
  
"Thank you," the fairy soughed. "Why the sudden change of heart?"  
  
"Change of level," Posie cryptically replied.  
  
"Change of-"  
  
Navi's reward was a mouthful of goop and shrill cry of excitement from her amused steed. At just the moment she'd made her reply, Posie took what grip on the floor she could and propelled herself forward on her belly down the hill. Navi screeched in the shock of sudden movement and the prospect of being splattered, and tried to snatch handfuls of Posie's hair. It was too slippery and, being a featherweight, Navi slid backwards and went sailing off behind. She pinwheeled like she was trapped in a miniature hurricane and skidded over Elaine's head completely. She came to rest face up at the head of the drop, where Naomi had carefully and sure-footedly begun her decent. She tried a stop on a Rupee to avoid stepping on the pixie, but her momentum caught up with her. She tumbled backward into an unwilling luge. Navi was churned up with heaps of glop at the end of Naomi's feet.  
  
The three(four, with Navi) of them came resting in a messy heap at the bottom of the inclination, piled up in what we'd liken to a car wreck. Slimy like a slug, Posie wriggled herself out from the middle of the stack and managed to stand. Naomi felt like she'd twisted her ankle. But her back throbbed even worse. Gingerly she nursed herself into a sitting position, so Elaine could get up. Noticing a twitching piece of lace embedded in the earth as well, she yanked up Navi. Her wings were knotted up something awful. She felt a rare surge of pity for the creature who'd destroyed so much of her and Posie's fun on numerous occasions, and passed her up to Naomi.  
  
Naomi carefully took Navi into her own hands and set Navi to pant her stress off on a friendly shoulder. Holding no prejudgments against her, Naomi stroked her wings in an attempt to flatten them.  
  
A big jet of mud leapt out of nowhere and greased the entire right side of her body.  
  
Her gross hair whip-cracked around as she spiraled to stare down Link. He held his Hover-attachments and grinned sheepishly. He stowed them behind his back in an attempt to look innocent. For reasons unfathomable, he'd chosen to surf down the entire yucky flow.  
  
"Tell me, Link, is it your goal to make me MORE miserable?"  
  
"No, but admittedly it's fun to try," he wittingly rebuked.  
  
Rather than even begin to try, she let it go with an "Uugh."  
  
Posie experimentally tried the ground down here now that they'd fallen. She found this way that all of the mud coating them now came strictly from the top of the hill-out of the emptying radius of the first hill, the land beneath her feet was hard and it felt very cold. It had iced over into permafrost. She shuddered without meaning too. The zephyrs kissing her from deep down in the mazelike caverns did not bring warmth. It was a wholeheartedly eerie breeze, cold enough down to its core that it almost made one's heart feel like stopping. It was scented with a matted, drenched odor halfway between the smoky caverns of Death Mountain and a wet dog.  
  
"Well, at least the ground's walkable here," sighed Naomi.  
  
Remissibly, Link shrugged and wore a careless expression-upturned lips, but not a smile, coupled with sloping brows. He flashed his palms and added, "So it is. And I notice, the temperature's dropping."  
  
"Is it, Einstein?" a bitter Gerudo churned. "Forgive my desert whims but to me, this place feels like seventy below!"  
  
"Actually from our current standpoint within this cavern, it is forty-three point seven two five two three nine six..."  
  
Everyone glared at Navi and growled her name out loud.  
  
"...Approximately forty-four degrees," she expediently abbreviated.  
  
"So which way do we head now?" asked Elaine, pivoting on her hips and surveying what she could of the space they had sloshed into. Her eyes had adjusted, but Link's torch was not-so-mysteriously absent. He couldn't have performed his sliding trick holding on to that tremendous stick!  
  
"Left, I think," he replied, walking up to Naomi and lifting Navi off her shoulder. He set her down on his own. Then he tapped her back and urged her to spill out what light she could in the pain of her ruined wings, in order to observe what was in front of him. With no less than grand contempt a weak little glow flickered around her and made the lonely open space less dark, but certainly not light enough to make out any shapes besides geological formations within ten feet and the four dirty companions.  
  
"Better fix us up another torch," requested Naomi. She'd found some sort of boulder to sit on and had her legs and arms crossed irritably.  
  
Link nodded to no one in particular and fished out his Din's Fire crystal again, along with a fresh Deku Stick. He held out the stick a few inches from his face and willed a flame to come into being from the crystal, but no reassuring light flew from it. There was instead a morale- wrenching belching noise and the fire within the gem dimmed.  
  
"Huh?" asked Elaine, suddenly interested at the turn of the burp. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Not sure," he briefly answered as he shook the artifact, agitated. "C'mon, you stupid thing! Work!" It replied by jetting a ray of fire back at him that made him drop the crystal in shock. The orb in the center vanished as quickly as it had flared.  
  
He bent down to pick it up again. He knew that the fire wouldn't respond if he had no inner magic to spare for the jewel, for it drew from his own power to work its magic. Surely it couldn't be him-he had only called a very small amount of the enchanted flames, and it had been the first time in weeks he'd tried to use anything magical at all. He tapped the crystal and tried to coax it verbally into working-"Come on, come on, I really need a little help here!"  
  
Link let it lie in tha palms of his hands and stared at it. Nothing happened. It was silent.  
  
A very small curl of smoke dribbled down to the floor like a worm burrowing into the ground, and Link eyed it with fascination. It dug through the air and settled itself on the floor, twisting and bending to form a very distinct cursive "K". The trail it had left while moving drew after it, sketching next a swirling "O." So the smoke wrote an entire sentence, which last just long enough for Link to whisper it to himself before the currents swept it away-  
  
Kotake was here.  
  
"Damn," he muttered, probably much louder than he'd meant too. He clapped his hands and turned around with sarcastic cheerfulness. He told his comrades, "Well, looks like we'll have to make do without a torch!"  
  
"Aha-aha-ha," Naomi whined, "what's the problem now?"  
  
"Apparently our little icy friend here has bewitched this cave to repel fire magics," Link morosely told her.  
  
"The Phantom?" wondered Elaine.  
  
"No, Kotake," Link returned.  
  
"Kotake? Who's that?" now Posie needed to know.  
  
"The ice half of the witch sisters Twinrova," Naomi fixed her up.  
  
"Well, no torch for us, then," Posie lamented. She twiddled her feet. "How will we find our way?"  
  
That question got a response before it was even finished. As the last word slipped from he mouth, an usually strong wind whipped past from the northernmost passage. "I have a feeling that that wind that's coming from way deep down in there is coming from the Phantom." He pointed in the rough direction of the trail they needed to blaze. "And if we follow the wind, eventually we'll find the Phantom."  
  
"And Tony," bemoaned Elaine.  
  
"And Tony," affirmed Link.  
  
The four of them hiked off in the darkness in the direction Link had directed them to. The Hover-apparatus he'd held had mysteriously vanished into some bleakness, but Naomi knew they'd be back next slime- filled hole they met. And for some reason, this thought made her... smile. Now she knew he was married, and she knew she could never love anyone besides her dear Randy, but Link was undeniably a really special guy. Maybe if he could take a peek before throwing himself off a cliff, he and her could possibly, just possibly, be friends. Friends with the great Link. Yeah... the idea had some charm to it. She didn't have a Book of Mudora for his mind, though, so that might take a while. But it was plausible...  
  
Wait a second, her feet weren't moving here. She was going to be left behind! Ooh, those airheads... She dashed into a sprint on the slickening earth, and suffered another embarrassing pratfall on a thin puddle of ice. She rolled over, spreading the mud on three fourths of her body to the remaining clean half, and crawled up to her stand and bumbled after. "Wait up!"  
  
SMACK! Right into the wall of the cave.  
  
Link peeked around the corner of the tunnel, sneering but only gently. "Wondered when you were gonna catch up, Nai," he chuckled. "Nice to see you do something stupid for once."  
  
Dazedly she peeled herself off and shook her head with a sort of merry exasperation. "One, it's dark in here so that was not stupid. It was..." she brushed her front, "...a mistake anyone could make. Secondly, don't call me Nai."  
  
"Fine then, Nukira," he teased before disappearing out of sight around the path. Naomi could have punched him for that one. But she restrained. It was much too cold for sudden movements. Now were had that ice come from if it was only forty-four degrees? Evil things were afoot in this cave, or at least highly annoying ones.  
  
Little puffs of Naomi's breath appeared as she caught up to the back of Link's party. She sidestepped Posie to be behind Elaine. Had she night vision, she'd see that Posie was none too happy about this.  
  
"Shhh." Link suddenly stopped. His right hand shot to the wall and his legs took a stance. Elaine hit the breaks so suddenly Naomi nearly tripped over her trying to halt herself. Steel sung from a leather scabbard, but it was Posie in the rear who took out her sword. Almost instantly she could feel as if all the foreboding energies in the underground were sucked up and drawn to gather in that blade. It trembled in eagerness, to smite them. And somehow Posie seemed not to notice this... Her eyes simply sparkled with an enterprising fire, but they were sharply ahead.  
  
"Listen," Link advised.  
  
They did. Posie and Elaine's elfin ears buzzed like pairs belong to giant rabbits. Naomi, who had no such ears, was stiffly alert.  
  
Echoing around, bouncing like a stalwart rubber ball, a melody sounded. A few notes rustling out of the strings of a badly-tuned mandolin, barely recognizable as what ought to have been the Hyrulean national anthem. Except those lyrics obviously weren't the real ones, they were the lyrics as someone far too enamored with the Hero of Time would sing them...  
  
"Link! He come to town! He come to save, The princess Zelda! Ganon took her away, Now the children don't play, But they will When Link saves the day! HALLELUJAH!"  
  
Oh, Naomi didn't want to hear any more of that downright awful tune! She clapped her hands over her ears. It wasn't enough to completely muffle the gross disfiguring of the anthem, a truly horrid intermission of twanging strings playing now. Then the creature's voice came back, wheeling around with its terrible singing. It was a shame it was wasting itself with such a petty song, she realized, because it did have an uncommonly good voice that it was sadly deciding to waste.  
  
Everyone else bore faces carrying similar distress. Posie had in fact practically wilted being submitted to the song.  
  
Finally the ending seemed to have been reached, but at the hope of relief it passed from that ballad into another. Link relaxed his tense posture. He mumbled behind him, "Let's move." He beckoned them and slid forward with a catlike warrior's stealth.  
  
Elaine purposefully let herself fall back to stride next to Posie, though the passage was very fast in narrowing. She took her friend's lead and removed the dagger she'd won from the Lizafos from its sheath, feeling it best to be aptly prepared. Link himself didn't know what they'd be facing.  
  
Something hit Posie in the head. It clattered and split when it hit the hardened floor. She looked up-a crumbling spider-web branched out from the ceiling, and it was a brick of fogged white ice. At the floor-a jagged icen rock roughly the size of your average ice cube. She tried to pick up her pace to get as far away from the perilous overhang. But the soles of her boots didn't want to get any sort of hold whatsoever.  
  
"Geez, I didn't remember this part," lamented Link as he sunk down to his knees. "No turning back now, it seems. Tighter than a Leever hole up ahead, be warned!"  
  
Naomi's steps farther up ahead disappeared when her fluffed-up pants started to chaff the now-frigid floor. Navi's miniature light was captured and thrown back over Naomi's shoulder by her right sword, now out in her hand, which translated it as slightly more bluish than it was. Her left one completely captured it in its smog-dark steel interiors. But it was clear where it cut the earth. It left moist, hot, steaming gashes where its owner had let it press into the ground. Elaine passed them with a slight worried look. She had to pull herself into a haunch much later than a tall adult. Posie, short as she was, could simply watch bemusedly.  
  
The tunnel scraped the top of her head, though. And it wasn't like the very entrance was, either. There were no stalactites here. The passage was almost perfectly round, in fact. About two feet high. But wide enough so Posie could walk beside Elaine. Get passed her if she wanted, if she chose to up her walking pace. But she couldn't get around Naomi, who held out her scimitars in a strange way while crawling. The right walls were developing a little white ridge on them that resembled darning, and the left ones were drawn with a straight gash that made them bleed mud. Posie shifted back from her position on the left, let Elaine get ahead of her, and swung around to the right. The ice brushed into her thigh, exposed except for a shell of mud, but it was better than being shoved back by a tyrannical splash.  
  
Link shimmied on forward, his feet unfortunately kicking mud in Naomi's face. She winced back, even if it did blend in slightly with her face and cover the markings there. Suddenly he stopped. "Oh, what NOW?!" she rebelled.  
  
"Hmmm. We appear to be... stuck."  
  
"Stuck?" asked Elaine from near the back.  
  
"I'm not sure... there's... something here... a plug of some kind!"  
  
"Great going, genius, now how do we move it?" It didn't take one to label Naomi.  
  
"It looks like a giant block of ice! It's freezing cold to the touch!"  
  
Posie rushed ahead of Elaine and elbowed Naomi so she would set aside the chilly one of her pair of blades. Link took up most of the way before her. She could leap over his legs and knelt down herself to pass under his stomach, peering around his shoulder at the end of the small obstacle course.  
  
"I dunno. What do you think of it, kid?"  
  
Posie eyed the block suspiciously. Tentatively she put a hand forward to the obstruction. She pawed at in a couple places, to build up the mental image of it as vaguely round. It was very cold. And it left her fingers and gauntlets wet when she drew them back. Process of simple elimination meant it was run-of-the-mil ice. Were it the enchanted red kind, her hand would come back covered in blistering vermilion burns. With so little light, it was mostly black. But something in the middle of it... if it were possible, it got darker there. She mulled it over while holding her chin... then she had an idea. Unceremoniously she dumped her sword on the floor for a moment and stood up to Link's shoulder height at the moment. She stole Navi("Wah! Hey!") for a moment and clasped the flailing fairy while she dove under his stomach again. She squeezed Navi like a rubber toy and reluctantly the fay woman gave out light.  
  
Posie gasped.  
  
Stuck in a state of suspended animation inside the water-block was that familiar facetious face literally frozen into a look of obvious discomfort. Tony had a hide pitted with dark black bruises and the scales on his fins mulled in the ice in unusual lackluster manner. His eyes were shut tight and his mouth was open, palms held up to brace against some charge. Like a person bearing up against a swift-moving and slithery Snake Rope. His body shuffled and clicked around ever so slightly. The silvery sheen just barely encompassing him indicated that a very fine layer of water surrounded him. What one might first assume to be a crop of feathers at the nape of his neck breezed around in the little space they could.  
  
Of course. He was half Zora, naturally he'd have gills. And somehow fully formed enough to sustain him with even that small amount of water he was floating in, before it became ice. It must have been like breathing through a straw, though. Highly unpleasant. Posie exclaimed, "Tony!"  
  
"Well, it's too tight here to do anything. We'd have to push him forward."  
  
"Can't Naomi use one of her swords?"  
  
"She'd have to come up here; no space!" Link's right hand, the free one, did half the talking as it gyrated on his wrist.  
  
"What do we do then?"  
  
"Only thing we can. Heave-ho!"  
  
The charge from Link's shoulder managed to shove the Zorasicle a few inches forward.  
  
"This might take a while," groaned Posie.  
  
Off in the background, the good old Phantom was singing again. This time it chanted a traditional Hyrulean nursery rhyme, about rabbits. At first it sounded like a tune that could have come out of any country, but the ending had a definitely Hyrulean twist.  
  
"The rabbits of the snowy lands Their paws are thick and pink, The rabbits of the fiery sands Their legs are long for leaps, The rabbits of the grassy plains They have big shiny eyes, The rabbits in the forest's reign Can almost touch the skies, I sing of them again and again, And of the Ebridani? Poor chap hasn't any, He's given his ears to the men."  
  
Irreverent thing. If it knew of their predicament, it certainly knew how to worsen it, by irritating them all with its scratchy singing and reminding Link that he'd be able to move this rock along a lot faster had he a Bunny Hood. The enchanted kind, mind, not the simple toy kind you could see children wearing in the market. How ridiculous of him, to be thinking about silly accessories like that while trying to shove a block of ice out of the way...  
  
"T-t-temperature is d-d-dropping q-q-quickly, L-L-Link," Navi stammered. Posie only just then seemed to remember that she was holding her. She held open her hand near Link's arm, and Navi stumbled off it to shimmy up to Link's shoulder. She clutched her arms around her stomach and bent over where she sat, like she had suddenly gotten motion sickness. "It's a-a-approximately t-t-twenty-four degrees now. W-w-water has w-w-well become ice."  
  
"Do you think that's not obvious, Navi?" Link asked in a certifiably fed-up way. "Because if it wasn't, I don't see why we'd be pushing Frozen Boy here."  
  
Eager to please, and eager to warm up Link's cold attitude, Navi decided to go on a ramble using some of her useless knowledge. "You know, this reminds me of a folk story from outside of Ebridane," she mused while being jolted as Link barged the icy boulder. "There was a man who owed a lot of money to a crimelord and was finally caught by a bounty hunter. His punishment was to be frozen solid... So he bid his friends and his sweetheart goodbye and they froze him. He was kept as a novelty item, until one of his friends trained enough to become a powerful warrior and save him from an eternity encased in ice. Ah..." Navi wiped a quickly- congealing tear from her eye. "That tale gives me the warm fuzzies every time I think about it. So touching."  
  
Link gutturally remarked, "I don't see you doing any work here, Navi."  
  
"Err, umm, I can't push very well," she fumbled to reply. It was truth. But a weak comeback.  
  
CHINK!  
  
"That didn't sound good," uh-ohed Naomi behind Link and Posie.  
  
"There's something else in front of us," stated Link blankly. He rocked his head to the sides and tried to push the Tony-stone over to the side to see what was stopping them even further.  
  
"I think it's another block of ice," breathed Navi. Despite the fact that there was nothing to look over, she craned heck neck as if attempting to peer above something that wasn't there. Since no one could see ahead beyond their initial obstruction, it was as good a guess as any. Elaine moaned something about needing permits to carry Ice Rods. Link looked near ready enough to snap at their lame run of luck. Either that, or sock the quasi-cube before him. It might have helped. It could possibly crack the shell on that kid and maybe allow them to get on. Until they came to whatever he'd hit, of course.  
  
"At least we can tell Ruto we found her son," Link said through clenched teeth.  
  
"Hey, Greenie, shove over." Link felt something jab at his ankles and he and Navi both turned their heads. Naomi was elbowing him and slamming the side of her fists into his heels. He scrambled into the wall to make room for the Gerudo, who had seethed her cold blade and had the hilt of the fire sword held in her teeth. Link had to bunch up into a tight ball to avoid being sliced, leaving Posie sandwiched between his stomach and the slippery floor. The passage had developed a bit of a third plug.  
  
"This is a bit too close for comfort," he tried his best to say sardonically. Naomi, by the way her eyes shot him, obviously didn't find that funny.  
  
Naomi slid her hand over the cold ice in front of her. "Right. Back up, guys, unless you like the idea of getting flambéed."  
  
Link tried to back up with Posie still beneath him. She wailed at him. "Hey! Let me out first!" He received a small punch in the stomach as she slid herself up and dove to glide back. He slowly inched back from the block hunched together like a beaten Wolfos. The thin layer of mud on that side of their precarious passage helped his momentum slightly, if not much.  
  
With a backward nod to see that the lot of them were safely out of the way, Naomi picked up the flame blade from where she'd let it drop. She gave a casual-sounding but ultimately serious warning and she held it up to the stopper. "Alright guys, this little bugger is naturally hot, but it's gonna take a lot more power than just its normal heat to melt this thing quickly. Could take hours normally. Trouble is, it doesn't like giving just that-trickle. It like to burst the floodgates, so to speak. Good chance there'll be plenty of fiery backlash. So once you see this thing light up, get back. Got anything in your little miracle backpack for burns, Linky Boy?"  
  
"Some burn salve, but whipping in out in this tight space might be hard. Worried for yourself, Naomi?"  
  
"Me? Nah, you know the rules of magic. It can't turn on it source, and I tap my own stores for this stuff. I'm talking about your little fishy friend here. He could get scorched."  
  
"He's no friend of ours! If you're going to toast him, so be it," laughed Elaine sourly.  
  
"Ooh, we're bitter," sighed Naomi. "Holding a little grudge? Do what you will, but don't turn me into your instrument of revenge."  
  
Elaine shrugged. She was of the opinion he was the creep to end all creeps, no matter what her mother was going to say about it. She had her own decidedly evil ideas planned for Tony. Naomi didn't have to hurt him for her. "Whatever."  
  
Naomi happily rolled her eyes and diverted her full attention to what she was trying to do there. For maximum efficiency, she pressed the flat side of her blade into the plug. She tried to pick a spot where the boy trapped inside would be least endangered if something were to go wrong. Now she inhaled through her mouth and exhaled through her nose, in the meditative way she'd been taught, and pictured reaching into her heart and drawing out a glowing chunk of-something, protean and red. Her mental image tossed it up into the air, then caught it and crushed it in her fists. It broke into leafs of stardust that flowed down her arm as if a groove were cut in it, the arm that in real life held her sword. She pictured her fingertips springing to life in sparks of red fire-  
  
There was a blast, all right, and it threw all four of them chaotically into a tangled heap about thirteen feet back. A cloud of smoke, filled with a cloying scent, formed into the selfsame words they'd seen earlier, Kotake was here, and dispersed to show that the chunk of ice was still intact.  
  
"I forgot about that," moaned Naomi while she rather painfully extracted herself from the mess they'd landed in.  
  
"Shh!" Link suddenly hissed at them all and they stopped, even as knotted as they were. A creaky breathing noise obviously not made by any of them penetrated from just beyond what they could not see.  
  
The Phantom was just beyond the ice. It was humming. A caddy- wompus tune, something that reverberated with a hint of bluegrass about it. Words entered the so far wordless melody, echoing in the Phantom's true voice. It was of the trill sort that might belong to an anthropomorphic insect, minus the clacking of giant mandibles. But there was an odd charm to the way it vibrated, even perhaps musical. It chanted a few lines about fighting a losing battle, and they came off as very pleasing to the ear. Hardly like what it had sung so far, but it sung this very quietly.  
  
"So. have you learned your lesson, child?" The sound waves came very directly down their hall, indicating it probably was speaking to one or both of their roadblocks. "Learned not to come trespassing into my home! How long would you like to be in there?"  
  
Posie was a bit unclear on the situation. She seemed to think the Phantom could see through walls and was talking to her. Suddenly she blurted out, "I don't-no! I want out now!"  
  
The Phantom drew a sharp breath. "Well. what was that? More little friends?" Posie swallowed when she felt the attention of her companions dawn on her. She lost her words into a pit of fear. There was the sound of glasses sliding into each other on a serving tray; instant blue light came through past the captured Tony. There was also a mild, round silhouette, hovering above it something that furthered the chilling filter. It put something like hands on the sides of their obstruction, and tugged backward. Inertia made it begin slowly, but it quickened as it fell onto final, pure ice. Tony and the whatever-it-was disappeared into the back of a large, open cavern lit by an enormous plume of blue fire, walls decked out spectacularly in great natural frozen formations. Stalactites and stalagmites that were near glass in their clarity created the appearance of a gaping mouth.  
  
The finally-revealed Phantom wiggled out from behind the block and came to its side, its figure blurry at a distance. As it came closer it grew sharper until its image was totally defined.  
  
It really wasn't like anything Link or any of his partners had ever seen before, really, and defied easy descriptions. Its body was spherical in shape and covered in a thick layer of fine, flat blue hairs. It had antennae sticking out from the sides of its head(which was about its entire body in truth) that curled. They were covered in a similar coat on fur, right down to their knobby tips. Despite their assumed fragility, they suspended between them a definitely thick-looking slab of something cold and teal. Its eyes-gaping, black and huge, almost fully taking up a fourth of its face with its batting eyelashes. Its hands were a totally out of place color of fuchsia pink, formed like a dog's. Its legs were a darker shade of navy and thick and fringed like a lion's, and its feet might have come off a rabbit. The "poor Ebridani" had lost more than his ears, it seemed. And the Phantom created a boiling patch of gasps in the passage.  
  
"Hmm. Not Zoras, it seems. They look human."  
  
"Yes, yes, we're human, we're human!" Elaine blurted. The creature looked harmless and its eyes were quite endearing, but there was no telling what it was capable of.  
  
"Well, humans are of no concern to me. Be gone!" It waved its little purple paw at them while it turned its back to admire the frozen half-boy.  
  
"Who and what are you, and why are you here? You're driving the poor Zoras insane with your singing," Link accused.  
  
"Who? I wish I myself knew. What? Who cares? And as for the songs, I enjoy singing very much and have been paid to perform here nightly," it replied in a nonchalant way.  
  
"Give us a straight answer or I skin your pelt for a Yeti Mail," snarled Naomi.  
  
"Go ahead if you will, but I daresay it'd not be very affective," shrugged the Phantom. "I'm not a pure Yeti. Only on my father's side, you know."  
  
"No, we don't know," Naomi griped back. "We've come here to get rid of you, and we'll do it without hurting you if you'll pack your bags and leave about now."  
  
"Bags? I carry no luggage. Only my mandolin and my songs, the ballads of old. I live happily here, and pay no rent. Why should I leave? Please, come into the cavern so we may talk."  
  
"But we're already talking," fussed Posie. "And I don't think that tune you sung earlier was very old at all, even if it did use the Anthem's tune!"  
  
"Hogwash. That's not the point, child! All I'm asking is that you crawl out of that mudhole so we can speak face-to-face. You'd like to be able to sit down, wouldn't you?"  
  
"Common sense dictates that you're probably trying to lure us into a trap, but my back says you're preaching to the choir," groaned a contorted Link. He managed to worm himself free and crawl on forward, coming to a stand at the exit of the burrow. This cave was not a part of the original caves, he knew. It was egg-shaped and the walls were perfectly smooth. No wonder he hadn't remembered the tiny crawlspace. Now that he thought about it, the Phantom was just a little shorter than the total height of the entire stretch. It must have been the creature's doorway, though an unnecessarily long one. Dungeon logic was purely baffling at times.  
  
He felt Naomi spring up behind him. He caught sight of her out of the corners of his eye. He could tell even with his color-limited vision that most of her hair was the same tint as her skin. The two children appeared after her. Huddled at the entrance to its lair there, Link acted as spokesperson and asked, "What now?"  
  
"Well, if you have something to say, say it," stated the Phantom blankly. It had its claws now wrapped around the mandolin it had spoken of, and it fiddled with the wooden tuning knobs. "And if not, then don't waste my time. I grow tired of these games."  
  
"We're going to formally request you take leave of this place and find someone else to torture," Naomi laid out.  
  
"And again I say: why? You are not my landlords, and I live here. You cannot force me to move."  
  
"Well, at least stop singing then, or sing softly. I barely got any sleep last night because of what you were doing!" Elaine registered her complaints.  
  
"On! I love to sing and I love to sing out. Besides, I receive money for my concerts. So stop, I think I'll not."  
  
"Who would pay you to sing songs like that?" angrily Posie wondered aloud.  
  
"I didn't ask for their names! They plucked me off the mountainside and told me they'd a job for me. They gave me sheet music and asked me to sing as obnoxiously as I could. They gave me this place to live in! No strings attached. They told me the cruel creatures called Zoras would try to take my home away and they gave me the fire to defend myself with. What is your point?"  
  
Twinrova struck again. "Did they fly on broomsticks and have eyes and noses that should have made them top-heavy?" inquired Link.  
  
"They did," was the concise reply from the Phantom.  
  
"Well, terrific. That was Twinrova. You made a bargain with Twinrova. Apparently, Mr. Phantom, you're quite the mercenary."  
  
The Phantom puffed up like one of the balloons it was shaped like and looked offended. "I should think not! Neither Yeti nor Freezzard wanted to count me among their kind on Ipanajou because I was not fully either. I leapt at the chance for residence and where I could pursue my hobby at will! And that's Miss Freezair to you," she corrected.  
  
"Oh, so that's what you are, a Freezair," Naomi mock-gasped. "Whatever the hell a Freezair is."  
  
"According to the Ipanaj, a hybrid of fur and frost. It was what they called me, for my mother never gave me a name. But my angst is not of your concern."  
  
"-Wait a moment, actually, it might be," grinned Link catching its statements. "You say you collect ballads. Do any of them concern a Scholar and the place he was buried, along with his warrior brother?"  
  
"Ah, I don't give free information," Freezair guarded her instrument. "I exchange Rupees or services for my music. The only songs you'll get from me without gems are the ones the whole world's heard enough to weary of. And bearing God's hatred it came, through swamps and marshes-"  
  
"I never liked Beowulf," Link cut her off. "What would we have to give you to make you shove out?"  
  
"Pay me fifty and I'll sing anything you request. But I'm not leaving."  
  
Now it was Link who wearied of her toying. "What if we made an exchange? We give you fifty, and you give us a ballad of Ipanajou. We give you a whole new ballad, and you get out of here."  
  
"A tempting request, but only if you can provide me with a song I've never heard before."  
  
Link assured the creature that he indeed could, and for a moment Posie seized in panic. Glossy-eyed she gripped his leg and asked meekly, "Daddy, you wouldn't. not. the song?"  
  
"Darling, of course not," he knelt down to pat her head. "Never that. But what about the other songs I know?" The presence of teeth in his smirk portrayed his best "You know." hint.  
  
"Oh," Posie chuckled as it dawned on her. "That. Well, you can sing that. In fact. may I chime in? But why are you so sure.?"  
  
"Because, here in Hyrule, we sing the 'Great Returns' song. Not that little ditty. 'Here again, here again, this is now and that was then. Great returns of the day.'"  
  
"What are you two plotting?" Navi had to ask.  
  
Link pretended not to hear her. Instead he put on a submissive emotion as he unhunched and reached at his belt for a leather satchel marked with a long glass octagon. He tugged apart the knot holding the drawstring to pull the little bag open, a pattern of colored light kissing his face as the brilliant jewels inside replied to the illuminated world around them. He tugged out one that painted violet and tossed it at the feet of the Freezair. "Alright. Ipanajou. Mention of Scholar's Tomb or the Sword of Obedience if you would. Do your little act, then we'll sing you our song."  
  
A tiny hooked claw caught the strings of her mandolin and sent out a sweet, fresh song. "Request taken," and Freezair sat down a moment to ponder her choices. She resembled a round version of the famous thinking statue with her hand on what they could guess was where her chin was. Then the puffball bounced up as if rubber with a joyous "Got it!"  
  
She cleared her throat. Left paw ready to finger the strings and right prepared for strumming, she went through a scale in her unadulterated voice. It still had a bit of a twang to it, but it was beautiful in the way a vibrating opera singer's voice was. She had chosen her profession wisely. The claws that one would have thought to be an encumbrance proved perfect little picks while she began her song.  
  
"The ancient one So knowing well as he did  
  
Saw top of Mount Ipanajou  
  
A shock of magnitude this He saw the things of his nightmares And the things of his dreams And learned from that scry What was not as it seems The gilded cage Which holds the bird A sculptor's masterpiece In a single word The glass escapes Filled with its wine It tastes of the feasts But stings as the brine If he should sip Drunk and a danger But to threats They are not stranger The minor demigod rules the spire It commands the wind Faced with a flea The dog will rescind."  
  
They all applauded politely, even Navi. In fact, she even complimented the Freezair. "Terrific song. Very moving. But what does it mean, exactly? I heard Ipanajou, but. I can see how the first few lines might have involved the Sword. 'Stuff of nightmares and dreams.' but then it wanders off into nonsense."  
  
"I think we all can be sure it was intended as some sort of prophecy," chortled Freezair. "Nonsense of that sort typically is. Perhaps it is serviceable nonsense."  
  
"I'm not a seer so it doesn't help me," Link turned up his nose. Hiking up his belt, he asked, "What more?"  
  
"You only paid for a single song. Cough up another fifty and I'll see what I can do. But we had a deal."  
  
"My wallet doesn't go that deep," Link lamented. "Fine, deal's a deal. You want a favor in return, you get it. Posie, are you ready?"  
  
He scooped her into his arms and lifted her to his chest. "Alright. Who ought we dedicate this one to, anyway?"  
  
"Mmm. We're giving Freezair this song, so let's make it hers all the way. Good?"  
  
"Works just fine with me."  
  
The two of them turned to the musical connoisseur. With his free hand Link conducted a steady rhythm. Head turned down at Posie, they began: "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Freezair. happy birthday to you!" And they bowed, after that brief encore. Elaine figured it would be polite and clapped, knowing that after Link had picked up that song who knew how many years ago he sung it at every birthday party instead of the more traditional "Great Returns" song. Navi openly rolled her eyes at their choice. Naomi simply thought it a tad eccentric to sing to this thing a song wishing it a good birthday, regardless of whether it was really its birthday.  
  
"Hmm. lyrics in the vein of 'Great Returns.' melodically simple. short, no doubt. but I do like it! I like it a lot! Perhaps I'll add a bit more to it. but I'd wager, I've made a good trade."  
  
"So will you leave?" asked Naomi.  
  
"I think I shall, and seek my fortune elsewhere. For many nights now I've heard a haunting noise upon the wind, and it beckons me to wild adventure." She slung her strings over her somewhat nonexistent shoulder. "I wish you luck upon your journey, voyagers," she bade farewell.  
  
"And to you on yours, Freezair!" Posie waved.  
  
Link realized that they had better step away if their spherical friend was going to escape, but rather it lifted a golden pod of the kind Sheikah often carried. It snapped it on the floor with a purple and black flash, vanishing without even a whisp of smoke, and taking with it almost all of the ice. Tony and their other cubically frozen friend, apparently Bruno, eased out of their frightened poses to be surrounded by a dark, open space that stank of moldy earth. Not wonderfully welcoming, but better than being stuck in a block of ice.  
  
*****************************  
  
"ARRRRRRRG! KOOOOOTAAAAAAKE!"  
  
"What is it?" the old harridan grumbled. Mounted to the front of her broom as she hovered was a pragmatic little blue screen she'd whipped up, and across it flowed a steady picture of rippling dunes and a walking trashcan.  
  
"Turn off that viewfinder doodad and come here so I can wallop you!"  
  
"What have I done this time? For the record, you had our baby last."  
  
"Your so-called 'Yeti' that you sent to torture the Zoras just vanished into thin air! I felt it during the routine monitoring I was doing! I checked all over and it isn't even on this planet anymore!"  
  
"Koume, Koume, calm down. You've said it yourself. They're the 'prissy' breed of Zoras. Nothing compared to their hard-nosed, fire- breathing, reptilian cousins. They will submit easily when the rightful King comes to reclaim his throne. They are the tamest race to fell."  
  
"Easier than Sheikah? Once we assassinate the royal wench and Kakarikan white-hair, we'll be rid of their pathetic lot."  
  
"No, no. We will convert the Sheikah, for the use of feeding our baby with their magic. Blood will not be the only nourishment he will need."  
  
"Perhaps we will let him have a meal of Zelda, after all, and keep the Sage. One of each race. Hylean. Kokiri. Goron. Zora. Sheikah. sad to say it, but Gerudo. Perhaps a Deku Scrub for good measure. And of course."  
  
"Greensleeves," Kotake chimed in while trying to stay focused on what flashed on her picture device.  
  
"And then what?" cackled her sister in her typical witchly manner. Even though she knew the answer.  
  
"We send fat old Mercutioe Harkinan a curveball he can't bat- an army of marching swords!"  
  
Both hags laughed at the prospect of the portly king sending his little viridian champion to try and ward off a million living blades with his teensy Master Sword-if it hadn't already been recruited. And if Link hadn't presumably already kicked the bucket at the hands of their minions. He'd be the crowning glory feast for their charred child, once he'd risen.  
  
Only in the world of the mortal were there no second chances. 


	11. Case Clothes

((CAN: Ooh, the fangirls are gonna be mobbing me for this one. It's like I've brought to life one of their darkest and most secret Linkish fantasies. Now I have to admit I'm guilty as charged in thinking that he's not a half-bad-looking guy, but honestly, it's in the interest of humor. The phrase "green silk briefs" has to make you at least crack a smirk, regardless of your gender. Right?))  
Spinning Slash, Chapter 11: Case; Clothes  
  
"Ok. two steps left here, forward, forward, forward. RIGHT!- aaaaand duck!"  
  
The four of them responded with reflexes akin to one who was being chased by a stray lightning bolt, even though Knashi was mostly talking to the taller two of the pack. Navi had learned the safest place inside this forest was wherever Link happened to be, and beneath his hat. Though said hat wasn't always on top of his head. The Gale-Seed trap they'd accidentally triggered several paces back did manage to gust it off his head. She felt a breeze much closer to her body than she'd liked when an arrow razed past the top of Link's head.  
  
"You're quick," the Zora woman complimented with a smile.  
  
"I used to do this for a living, ma'am," he said as he dared to raise. He hunched down in a sprint when another one appeared from an innocent-looking tree trunk.  
  
"Hope you're learning a thing or two, little one," Knashi warmly advised Posie. "Pay attention and maybe one day you'll be as good as your father."  
  
Posie shook her head and gave a sardonic grin. "I'm paying, but what's the point? If it's true what they say, and you're as tall as an adult as twice you were when you were two, I'm still going to be too short by twenty to have to duck!"  
  
"Aww, cheer up, Pose, I'm sure you'll grow at. some point or another." But it was hard for Elaine to feel confident while Naomi edgewise sent the ambushing oak up in a column of flame behind her.  
  
There was a very muting grayness about the ashy forest, despite the fact it was fed by the richest waters in all of Hyrule. Though shimmery green on the upside, the undersides of all the leaves in the trees' hair were the color of dusk. And with the branching tallness of every tree, it was like looking up into billowing rainclouds. Even the soil was verging on white. And there was no grass to speak of, either. So when Posie had tripped up earlier, it had been onto stone and grit.  
  
"And we're what? A half mile in? Oh brother." Navi's tiny body sliced out from under Link's cap, and she wore the rim around her like a gigantic robe.  
  
"Feels like we've been here an eternity, doesn't it?" wondered Link as it became finally safe to come back to his feet.  
  
"I'm sure we have," groaned Naomi as she doused the tree with ice to stop it from engulfing the others around it. "We've spent a fourth of our time walking and the remaining three fourths falling and ducking and dodging and running!"  
  
"We had to be very thorough with our traps around here," answered Knashi. "Not so much as to keep things out but in. The Colony of Ancient Waters is rather, err. as I try never to speak ill of anyone behind their backs, I'll say unsophisticated."  
  
"How's that?" asked Elaine. "I thought some of the Domain were going to move there."  
  
".Until negotiations went bad. Roll." They dropped to the ground as gracefully as they could, rolling right beneath a tall bush as it chucked three fair-sized boulders at the spot where they'd stood. Link held out his sword and gave the mechanism a steady chop in half, then helped Knashi up so she could continue.  
  
"See, child, I don't know if you know this, but there are two kinds of Zoras. We are the developed kind, and they are not so. They, dare I say, have ideas settled in. warfare. Regardless of the fact that they need water as much as we do, they practice fire magic. And unlike our sleek physique, they are bulky and look like overly-evolved dinosaurs. Interbreeding of our species is rather. frowned upon."  
  
"Ah."  
  
"You're welcome. Kneel and run!"  
  
They all lowered their heads and charged ahead, as the ground beneath them was necromanced into a thorny wave. Similar shark-fin razors swung down from the branches they trooped beneath.  
  
"Alright. I think that was the worst one this area. That is, as long as you stay out of the river. Don't even think about sipping from it. There are some nasty enchantments on this strip of water."  
  
Elaine looked curiously at the western trickle that somehow, in the Zora's eyes, had earned the right to be called a "river." The water was bright and clear, only invisible where its gleaming surface smacked back the rays of the sun-and noticeably clean. Even for Domain standards. Even the bed was, like the rest of surrounding land, gray. Not black, and healthily clustered with algae. It definitely looked enchanted, but in a malevolent way?  
  
She took a chance. Inching closes as she dared, she let a dead leaf fall into the stream's tantalizing folds. Unaware of its fate, it was content to twist and do tricks in the air before a magicked stretch of liquid ate it up with cold teeth.  
  
"I told you to stay away from the river!" Knashi's head turned on Elaine when a powerful stench of vomit filled the air. "There are spells on this place, remember?" she gently reprimanded the little girl. "That's not water in there, it's hydrochloric acid. Nasty stuff. It'll burn your skin off down to your bones if you touch it! There are small spots where the spells are lifted; it's safe to drink, but not here."  
  
"If you're thirsty, Elaine, Link has some water in his pack," suggested Naomi with a shrug.  
  
"No, I was just. curious," she winced back.  
  
"This isn't a good place to be curious," even Posie recognized.  
  
Well, she knew that, but though peculiar the water hadn't really seemed dangerous. She tried to concentrate on the crunching sound her feet made on the natural carpeting. As her feet lifted off she could feel the rubber sole of her one shoe lifting up from her heel. Another thing to worry about. Her shoes were falling apart already? She'd bought them just before school had started, they weren't old! But they'd been through way too much to be at the prime two-month-old shoes should have been at. Death Mountain, Zora's Domain, this. Not to mention she only had one left! She envied Posie's sturdy brown boots. Not only did they resist the elements, they deterred the prickly branches Elaine felt gnawing at her own legs, slipping under her dress. Pedophilic branches.  
  
"I wish I had a pair of boots like yours, Posie. Mine aren't quite up to this trip, it seems." She paused a second to hold up her leg so Posie could examine her shoe, then she sat it back down and began walking again.  
  
"Maybe I'll get you a nice pair for your birthday," Posie stuck out her tongue.  
  
"But that's like an eternity till then! My birthday was at the start of August, it's eleven months away!"  
  
"You sound like you don't like the present I gave you this year." Posie crossed her arms in mock-offense.  
  
"Are you kidding? A bag full of chocolate and three puzzles works great in my book. But really. That's a long time to wait."  
  
"Girls, quiet down and listen to Knashi," Link looked back over his shoulder.  
  
"More traps," they both sighed.  
  
"Don't worry, children, it isn't much further," Knashi told them. "Just a few more arrow launchers and a small fire cannon; don't see where the wisdom in that one was." Most of them tried to force chuckles, but the sour path they gazed into left their spirits low. "Oh, and one doozy of trap that's going to take some fancy footwork to pull off."  
  
"I though you said the worst was passed?" asked Naomi, not happy with being taken by surprise.  
  
"I did. But I meant after the end snare. It's cruel," she grieved.  
  
"Beautiful," whined the ever-sarcastic inquisitor.  
  
In this harshness Link had trained himself to view all before stepping. What here was going to get brusque on them next? He kicked a rock. It made a sound like an insulted monkey and Link's pupils shrunk substantially. Then he flashed his arms with a lazy smirk that wanted to know, What's this crazy Hyrule gonna do next?  
  
He was told from his back by Knashi, "That's how unwise warriors get themselves killed, Sir Blade."  
  
"I'm only checking for traps, and I'm not a 'Sir' unless somehow this is a royal court meeting and I'm having a rather threatening hallucination."  
  
"Ok, but I'll do the checking around here." She grinned off the bit about threatening hallucinations. Naomi scrunched up at him as if he'd dropped little bits and pieces of his mind out his ear on the way back from the Fountain Cavern.  
  
At first she thought it might have just been her imagination, but Posie soon actively realized the air was becoming whiter. It appeared to be fog, but it had the character warmth of steam. It seemed to be pouring out of an orifice in a burnt log. "Err, excuse me, Miss Knashi-"  
  
"Hmm?" The Zora tossed her eyes back. She picked up on the curious log. "Ah-fiduss." She rubbed several delicate blue fingers across her forehead. "But we haven't seen the fire cannon just yet, so that means-of course, it fits in with the theme, why not move it."  
  
She was punctuated by Navi, who threw in an entirely non sequiter line of her own from under Link's hat. "It smells funny here," she made a face while saying. "Like burnt butter, although it sort of stings my nose."  
  
Knashi's attentions were instantly fixed on the tiny glowing orb that showed slightly beneath the green cap. "Fairy. You say it smells funny here. What does it look like? What does the air taste of?"  
  
Navi seemed pleasantly shocked at actually having her advice asked for for once. "Well. it seems rather. blue, and it undulates like the ocean. The taste. it's like putting a lit match in my mouth," she flinched at the uncomfortable thought.  
  
The Zora replied with a grim nod. Her line of sight fell little more than three inches but it was obvious she was trailing Link now. "Everyone. I want you all to throw me anything metal you may be carrying. Anything at all. Unless your skin is coated in a gel that makes you fireproof, like mine, you are in great danger if you head in much farther."  
  
To take off his sword and shield was like sloughing off a part of his body, but Link unhooked the clasps attaching his gear to his shoulder strap and tossed it all to Knashi. She caught one in each hand, and stuck them to her own belt. Naomi did a bit of a doltish thing and pulled her weapons out of their sheaths before handing them over, but the Zora slide them with ease under the little belt and didn't make a scene. In her own hands she took Elaine's dagger and Posie's tiny tack.  
  
"What's this about?" interrogated Link as he "remembered" wearing his Hookshot and gave it to their guide.  
  
"Thankfully, little Link Junior spotted the steam machine-"  
  
Posie flushed ruby as a cherry at being called "Link Junior." Almost too flattered to speak, she tried to return the favor in a clumsy fashion: "Aww, well, my name's Posie and, uh, that's really, uh, an overstatement?"  
  
"Think nothing of it," she quickly checked the child. "Right now the vapor is gentle and seems benevolent, but it's all a part of the last trap. Even if we've managed to clear our the others in the harbor of automation, we still have to face this last one whose goal is to cook us alive."  
  
Not surprisingly, there were four simultaneous "Ewwwws!" in response.  
  
"The steam will crank up to far beyond bearable level. We've got to face the fire cannons, and deadliest of all is the enchanted radiation field. With the fairy's ability to sense energy with their normal senses, our little friend stopped us from walking right into it."  
  
It was Navi's turn to blush. She'd saved their lives, sort of.  
  
"Had she not popped out of your hat, Sir Blade, your armaments would have begun sparking fiercely and most likely set fire to your clothes and body, with their immense heat. Due to the confines of Ebridane I trust you not to have any experience with an outside object known as the microwave, but due to the nature of our conversation I trust you might have an idea of what happens when you place anything metal inside."  
  
Link had an image in his head of a flaming spoon. He could guess. "And I'm still not Sir Blade."  
  
"You're a knight and you're of the Blade family, that makes you Sir Blade to me."  
  
"It's embarrassing!" he half-seriously scowled.  
  
Knashi's eyes scolded him and told him at once that this was not the time for petty arguments. "It doesn't matter. What does is that our lives will shortly be on the line and you all require briefing."  
  
Elaine watched the steam coil ahead in a way that was decidedly that of a sentient mist. She wondered how they would handle blazing hot water vapor and the foreign waves bouncing around in their invisible confinement. They already knew what was coming, but hopefully their wise guide had some idea of how to put up with it. "How will we get past this last trap, anyway? It seems pretty thorough."  
  
"I have in my possession a charm which will create a small current around us; it will move away the steam from our bodies. It's strong enough to deter the fire as well, but shoving it off into the bush could be dangerous. As for the radiation. I've not a clue how we'll handle that, unless one of you can offer up a solution?"  
  
"Whip out one of your magic doodads, Daddy, and we'll use that!"  
  
Link was abashed to admit, he'd not thought to bring any higher protection. Such as Nayru's Love, the Goddess-given spell, or the Cane of Byrna, an ancient wizard's staff of invincibility. There went his poor planning skills again! Timidly he replied to Posie. "Well, sorry, kid, but I didn't bring anything helpful like that. I really only brought the basics- wanted to pack light. I don't think they'll be able to help us any."  
  
"Well, might as well try," scoffed Navi. "What've you got in that pack? Could work."  
  
"My equipment is as follows. The Master Sword and my prized shield, plus my Golden Gauntlets. My bow and arrows, a Hookshot, Din's Fire, a Roc's Cape, a bag of Magic Powder, couple of Deku branches. that's about it, I think. And my Ocarina, of course."  
  
"Roc's Cape. I'm not familiar with that sort of artifact; what does it do?"  
  
Naomi seemed a bit off-put. "Everyone knows what a Roc's Cape does," she groaned in a facetious stating of the apparently obvious. "Heck, even me. They're basically your standard cape covered in Roc feathers. Basically anyone who wears it gets to play a flying superhero. Excellent if you want to get across a canyon, but it doesn't provide any sort of protection."  
  
Knashi looked for a moment to be sincerely pondering this. Perhaps she even had a plan, maybe flying over the contaminated area. Though the idea quickly gripped her that a single mantle wasn't enough for five people. "Do you know any Ocarina magic that could help?"  
  
"A million songs and not a one that would be of any use in this situation. I can travel places in an instant, but not any place we'd care to be. I could call a flock of birds and travel that way, but they, too, know few areas of interest. Some songs I know would do nothing at all, and one would aid only me. I have friends in many faraway places who can hear me wherever I play, but it would take a good deal of time for any of them to reach me."  
  
"Mmm. We are in a spot, then. I suppose we'll just have to run for it, and hope we don't do any permanent damage to ourselves."  
  
That was something they'd love to think about. Really.  
  
"How'd you get through last time?" Elaine wondered aloud.  
  
"Well you see, last time this trap wasn't exactly here. Wasn't a need for it, really. at the time His Highness had a bargain going with some of the creatures of this forest. The Nymphs; sort of weaker fairies, you see. They had a Queen who would drive back anyone who tried to pass her castle, which worked quite well until the King found out how exactly she did this."  
  
Posie was cocked to ask a question; Knashi read it before it broke the mist. "He didn't say. He blushed navy when they asked him what she'd been doing. Though he did draw his robes around himself a bit tighter after he refused to answer."  
  
Naomi suddenly recoiled and had her finger in her mouth. "Oww! Guys, I think we're close. I just got burned!"  
  
"Ooh, gracious!" Navi was out of sight again quick as a boulder set before a Goron. She didn't want to be around when things got messy, even though she didn't really have to worry about getting hurt. Fairies were sturdy and resilient creatures, tough to hurt and practically immune to magic. Only things harder to get rid of were cockroaches and dandelions, but that was all mundane.  
  
"Alright, let's move. Everyone, cluster!" Knashi expediently found herself at the center of a small honeycomb of terrified persons. "Good. Stay together and move quickly. Agrath tazmè!" In effect, what she had just said in ancient Hylean was "Go wind," which might come off as a lame summoning chant to some. Dust itched passed all of their faces as they were surrounded by a dizzying tornado. As a final piece of advice, she told them all, "Don't try crossing the boundaries. You'll be whipped outside and be vulnerable to the steam. And fire," she added as an afterthought. "The wind circles me. So stay by my side."  
  
They didn't need to be told.  
  
On a dare presented to them by the Goddesses they stepped across the line of safety, into a blazing realm where they could feel their faces tingle. Their bodies were being bombarded by the fierce radiation and Knashi had become her own personal fireworks display. Every metal-coated inch of her body blazed. There was just enough space inside the whirling column for them to safely back away.  
  
Posie hurt. She wanted to run on ahead. The temperature was intolerable even in their safety zone, as streaking waves collided with her face. They were trying to move fast, but the need for precision hampered their efforts. Link was trying to ease all their jumpy souls with some friendly prattle. "You know, Knashi, looks like you're going to be added to the list of the few people I can say have saved my life."  
  
"Don't talk, just walk," she rhymed on the instant. "But that's an interesting thought. I doubt it'll make me famous, though." It was nice to see she was realistic about her deed.  
  
"I know it won't. This little adventure's supposed to be confidential."  
  
"Really! You don't want more fame for bringing home some fantastic sword?"  
  
"Don't want it, don't need it. Especially since Posie will, in theory, be taking it. Most all the adventures I really remember, and treasure, are the ones that went thankless."  
  
Knashi was enjoying listening to the hero's philosophy, despite what she'd censured with mere seconds ago. "Interesting. Like how?"  
  
"My birthdays-never seem to go over well," Link sort of laughed as he started retelling his memories. "On my twelfth my younger sister, Arill, was kidnapped. I know most boys that age hate their younger sisters, but you have to understand-I hadn't had a real family for ten years of my short life and the last two had been utter heaven. My sister was one of my three best friends! Her and Saria and Zelda. I was crushed. I traveled untold lengths to find her! And only she and my grandmother-rest her soul-ever gave me a nod for it. See what I mean?"  
  
"Sir Blade, you're a most fascinating man. I do hope we meet again; I'd love to talk more!"  
  
"Flattering, but right about now I'm not big on distractions-"  
  
"Right." The Zora recognized her own folly and quieted up, for the most part. She still told everyone for a last time that they had to move quickly and get out before they baked.  
  
Surprisingly the remainder of the way out was rather anticlimactic. Boring, actually. Though Knashi made for an interesting display, sizzling and popping covered in metal objects, the five of them stuck together like taffy on a summer day and marched through the ugly field while steam seethed over their heads and crimson jets of anxious flame bounced away from their spiral shield. Their faces were certainly turning red and they all felt somewhat faint, but only Navi really complained about the smell and taste of the microwaves. She had her own little electric blue world that she was living in.  
  
Naomi, perhaps the second-most irked after Navi, might seemed to one at that moment a walking sundae. Her face was, after all, the color of chocolate ice cream, and her hair a red like cherries. Somewhat darker than standard Gerudo fare, actually. And she was covered in an enormous chocolate "shell-" the caked remains of their trip in the fountain cave. They were all still very much covered in mud, but it was now dry and flaking of in large pieces. And it itched terribly. The tingle in the air was abating, the steam clearing from its scuffed-glass impairment and no more somewhat innocuous rocks spat fire, but all the walking was destroying their grimy casing and bringing out a new wave of discomfort.  
  
"I think we've made it to the other side," breathed Knashi.  
  
Despite their obvious heavy breathing, they all felt as if they were releasing their breaths after holding them for a very long time. Posie heard the Zora woman chant more runic words and dispel the tornado. The air was still white, but it felt pleasurable again. Naomi, who'd been very upright through the ordeal, now fell into a slouch of relief. "I hated that. My gut felt awful. Thank the Goddesses it's over."  
  
"I thought I was burning up in there! I just hope there's no-hey, Pose, what's a fancy word for bad results?"  
  
"Mmm." Posie checked her mental thesaurus. "Repercussions," she announced after some thought.  
  
"Right. I hope there's no repercussions from that," she proudly stated with her borrowed vocabulary.  
  
Link had to laugh. "You two are really silly sometimes, you know that?"  
  
Two shrugs. He guffawed even harder. "Ah, you kids-"  
  
Knashi looked around at the seemingly revived yet flaky crew she had commanded, and tenderly barked them all "Front and center." She set down the heavy burden of weaponry she had carried through the last test. With her photographic memory, she lifted each of their prospective goods in turn and called to them to pick up what they'd left. Link felt complete again with his sword and shield slung on his back once more, Posie commandeered her miniscule arms, Elaine tucked the dagger back under her limb and Naomi did a small dervish dance on receiving her twin blades. Their Zora friend was again bare save her belt and blue charm swinging on a golden chain.  
  
"Once again, Knashi-thank you. Tell the King he could not have picked a better guard to send with us."  
  
"He'll probably think I'm making it up to further my own army rank," she gave an unadulterated laugh. "But you're all quite welcome. It was a pleasure."  
  
"Our pleasure entirely." Posie picked up for Link. "Now, there was some gift or another you were going to give us so we could get past the other Zoras-"  
  
"It's already been given," she smiled slyly. "By getting through the last neck of the woods, so to speak, you activated the charm that placed it within you all."  
  
To Link, that at first seemed a complete defeat of the point of having the traps, until her caught on-"Within?"  
  
"In a manner of speaking, yes. If you were to take of your tunic right now, you'd see that a mark bearing the Seal of Water on your chest. As long as the friendly enchantment remains on you, that mark will be there. As soon as you are welcomed by those at Ancient Waters, the mark will disappear. You will no longer need the spell after that. The lake itself will remember you treading inside of it as a friend."  
  
How remarkably simple. A similar sort of spell kept him from becoming a monster inside of the Lost Woods, like a normal Hylean. Only it had been there since he had been an infant, because the Deku Tree had had to protect him from the malevolent spells somehow. Only those Saria and the Great Deku Sprout agreed upon could have such protection, and those of outside races actually born within the forest were always protected. Like Posie. "Perhaps we should now depart, Knashi."  
  
"Perhaps. Goddesspeed, Sir Blade." She bowed and recited the guardian charm again, strolling almost leisurely back through the cursed and misted trees.  
  
Naomi silently watched her leave with Link, feeling the same as he in that it was far more comforting to have her presence with them. They were strangers, and trespassers in this wood. Thought not friendly, she was familiar with these trees and shrubs. "Seems like the moment you make a new friend, they have to leave ya. eh, Linky-Boy?"  
  
"That's really irritating, Naomi," her sighed with his face not concentrating on hers. "And yet enemies, on the other hand."  
  
"Just what exactly are you suggesting, hmm?"  
  
"Please don't start that again," groaned Posie as she massaged her face. "We don't need any more of that. strife."  
  
Naomi eyed Elaine. "I never ever signed up for this, so I don't have to put up with it," she shivered slightly. "If you'd hand over my daughter," directed now at Link, "I'd get out of here and you'd never have to worry about me again!"  
  
"I reiterate. How are you going to get back through there, and how are you going to get to Randy's house without causing a whole bunch of hoopla?"  
  
She pretended to examine her nails and hummed random notes without a melody. "La la la; can't hear you."  
  
"Please don't put her in the middle of your fighting," gravely pleaded Posie.  
  
"Oh alright," they both gave in at the same time. They gazed at each other with a look mirroring what they thought; That's just creepy. They'd barely known each other for a day. And they already were responding in unison. Link knew a total of three people for whom he did that.  
  
Navi mimicked in words a hollow laugh. "Yuk, yuk. Got a problem, Linky-Boy?"  
  
"Now you're doing it." He shoved a hand under his hat, much to the fairy's displeasure, and only had to put up a finger to be on the verge of choking her. "Do have to resort to petty threats here or will you stop on your own?"  
  
Here barely-intelligible and garbled response came through a strangled windpipe. "Gack! I'll stop! I'll stop."  
  
He dropped her into the air. Her scarcely-recovered wings had to struggle in the half-second she had to keep her afloat. "Don't do that," she puled in a hunched-over hover. "Now really, you were such a sweet kid. What happened, huh?"  
  
"A certain fairy ticked me off, that's what! I'm covered in dry mud and it irritates my skin, my clothes are all stiff and the air's all humid. Now's not a good time to get on my nerves!" He was noticeably pointing at her.  
  
"Agreed on all three points, bub." Naomi slung her arms casually as she reached down to pull off one of her slippers and crack the hardened goop off of it. "We're out of the trap; what's with the steam?"  
  
"Does anyone else hear a weird sort of buzzing noise?"  
  
"I do, but that's the energy field behind us," Navi shrugged to Posie.  
  
"I hear bubbling. Like a boiling pot," observed Elaine.  
  
"It's certainly got the visibility of an active kitchen," pondered Naomi as she sniffed the air. "Clover. and honey. And something else-ugh, cheap perfume," she gagged while clearing the air in front of her face.  
  
"No magic as far as I can tell." Navi affirmed them all with her specially-trained fay senses.  
  
Remembering Knashi's warning about how unwise soldiers were killed, Link tiptoed up to a large bush with an exceptionally thick fog about it and teased a few of the branches back. They were young and supple limbs; the hedge was so thick and strong he couldn't hold enough back. Rolling his eyes and deciding there was a much easier way, he snapped out his recovered sword and dealt a whipping blow to the bush's center. He stuck his head through the newly-manufactured hole and felt globs of sap slide into his hair from the plant's wounds.  
  
He gazed around and licked his lips, while hot air tickled his nose with drops of condensation. He saw before him a pool of only slightly muddled water, surface roiling. Though despite the steam, it couldn't be mistaken for boiling-it didn't bubble. It merely churned. A small hot spring! The Zora King had mentioned this. But he'd also mentioned plural. were there more? Most likely. With the enspellments behind them fairly blocked, one pond couldn't make enough steam.  
  
Link pulled his sticky head out of the scrub, but his hands still held onto the peephole. "Hey, guys-there's some hot springs ahead! How's that for luck, ehh?"  
  
Posie shirked back a little. "I don't really like hot water," she said in a moment of misunderstanding.  
  
Elaine corrected her, doing her half of their symbiotic speech relationship. "I think he meant so we could take a bath and get this mud off of us," she grinned.  
  
She felt humbled a little at not being the one to catch Elaine's nonexistent mistake, but that had been happening recently. The girl was gaining on her in terms of intelligence at wit, and twice had she managed to use vocabulary that flew over Posie's head. Which was sort of scary, because she knew Elaine had started actively keeping score on this. "By the way, I'm three points up on you. I'll gain on your twentysome yet!"  
  
"Outta the way, Linky-boy," Naomi shoved him out of her path. She finished obliterating the bush for him with a few icen shards and a downward slash instead of her standard blaze, snagging a few fraying strings in his tunic in the bargain. She stepped around the swirling, unstable sediment around the first pool and leapt around an ashen-trunked tree. She paused, letting her head swivel-and looked around, still finding Link too close for her liking. She elbowed into the stomach of a bush-or perhaps it was a tree whose branches grew too low-with an empty center, and apparently hummed with satisfaction when she found another pool there.  
  
The low-hanging boughs were surprisingly few; they merely carried thick foliage. The brown-and-red head appeared from between feathers of green, carrying instructions and a warning. "Girls, this way. You take that one in front of you," she indicated to Link with a shake. "Don't you dare come in here while we're soaking. I'll respect your privacy, you respect mine, kay?"  
  
"I wasn't even thinking about looking," he coughed, offended and this time for real. He wasn't the kind to indulge in fantasies of that sort! He knew Naomi would accuse him of having a dirty mind, but if she worried about those sort of things, maybe she was the one with problems.  
  
Elaine followed merrily along, but Posie hesitated for a moment. She contemplated something; Link had a guess as to what it might be, but he gave it a pass because he was sure she was too young to care. He thought. Perhaps she was a bit more modest that he assumed-she looked up at Navi with a simple question on her mind. "Navi, would you come with me? I, err, would really prefer to be alone bathing-"  
  
Navi was strangely accommodating to Posie's request. Without her normal haggard attitude to the little girl, she replied honestly, "Sure." And what an oddly calm voice, too. "For once, I understand where you're coming from. I don't like having to-well, undress in front of anyone either."  
  
"Thanks, Navi." Bona fide thanks. "I didn't want to go alone, but around anyone else I'd be uncomfortable."  
  
"Yeah, well," Navi moaned. "I know I'm normally pretty callous to you and all, but I suppose at heart-you're your father's daughter. I guess I'm obliged to love you because of that."  
  
Posie replied with two words of real and unreserved childish innocence-"You're weird." She gave a laugh that would warm the heart of the chilliest miser.  
  
Link watched Navi pace after her as she took an eastern path to seek a third spring for herself. He hoped it was a shallow one. Having to constantly paddle while you were trying to relax was pretty much a nullification of the soothing hot water.  
  
His own bath looked to be fairly cone-shaped-easy to rest in, then. And hopefully it wasn't scalding, either. Gently he eased off one long boot with his other foot and it slipped to the ground, right at the edges of the bubbling puddle. He let the still-covered toes on that free foot jump on the surface a little. Hot. Wonderfully hot. He could feel every knotted muscle in his body melt just a little at the prospect of that restful bath. His backpack he could happily slick away, removing great amounts of pressure all through his tendons. The heavy metal he almost always wore, and proudly, was for one baubles that wouldn't get in the way of his relaxation as was the strap that held them.  
  
He sat down and tugged off his other boot and both his socks, one of them damp after its brief trip in the water. His fingers went soft in their eagerness to enter that tub, but he managed to undo the catch on his belt and cast that aside. His gauntlets, last of his leather apparel, fell free of his hands, leaving his sweaty palms to feel the glorious tickling of the open air again. He flexed his fingers in the delicate breeze a minute, letting them shake off the feel of chain mail.  
  
His tunic looked like a very long shirt when it didn't have anything to divide it, piled up on top of the steadfast boots. His hat he took better care of than the rest of his clothing, delicately setting it flat on the ground with his gloves on top to keep it from being blown away. He realized the stark heat of his undershirt, discarding it gladly. The clinging fabric clearly smelt of everything it had been through.  
  
There was a blood-brown mark there copied from the Seal of Water, just as their guide had said there would be. Link untied the small green ribbon that kept the majority of his long hair in a ponytail beneath his hat, and it fell all over his face, still lightly bent from its imprisonment but glad to be free. His pants and the last of his clothing went into his unorganized pile and he let himself be engulfed by the mostly- crystal liquid simmering at his toes.  
  
It was like sinking into distilled essence of ease. He fell into luscious pieces as the magic hands of the water went over his tight legs and sensitively pulled apart the pangs rooted in them. The sugar-sand silt forming the cone of the pool was not grainy and uncomfortable; quite the contrary; it was soft as a blanket and squished enjoyably between his toes. The effect of it all was so lulling Link felt his eyelids almost unnoticeably hike down despite it being early morning. Even the most exciting adventure needed a pause; Link was more than happy to let this be it. His ears, now mostly hidden by his hair except for their bouncy tips, signaled out the sounds of the land for his mind to contemplate so he wouldn't actually doze off.  
  
Sounded like Elaine was having trouble being coaxed into the water beneath the willow-like tree. "But I can't swim," he heard her plea. He smiled blissfully and rolled over onto his stomach, resting his chin on his wreathed arms.  
  
"Nonsense! It's only two feet deep," Naomi tried to reassure her. "You will not drown. You can stand up easily."  
  
"W-w-what if I slip?"  
  
"Oh, Goddesses, girl, don't be paranoid. I'm right here; you'll be alright!"  
  
Elaine's reply was not convinced, but it was willing to try anyway. Link chuckled. He flopped over again, head supported buy his hands in a classic "living in luxury" pose.  
  
He let the sand, as much a liquid as what was propped above it, carry him downward to submerge himself in the remedial warmth. The spring was just deep enough that he could completely bury himself under the surface of the water if he curled. He opened his eyes for just an ephemeral moment to view the murky ripples of sunlight stabbing into the pond, then shot upward to bite the green-and-honey-scented air. The faint prickling wind ate the water on his face and left it with a not altogether unpleasant frost. His skin had that wet, clean and ionized feeling that comes with summer rain.  
  
It did more than cleanse his body. His soul, too, could feel the effects. His morale was invigorated greatly. As the grime fell away from his figure, so did the clouds of pessimism and depression that encircled his spirit. He was lackadaisically humming to himself a tune an old friend had taught him, a ballad as tender and fleeting as the wind itself.  
  
A sudden whirlwind kicked up behind him, overlaid by a curious rattle of sorts. Link felt the ice it pressed into his back and ducked his shoulders into the water. It vanished, however, before his brain had let him begin the motion.  
  
"Hey, what's that?"  
  
His neck went stiff and his eyeballs froze. Posie's voice?  
  
"Mmm." Navi did not sound worried when she was questioned. He was allowed to let go again. "Looks t'me like. honey, that's what I'd vouch. Might be edible. dunno."  
  
Link had to laugh at himself. This place did reek of honey rather strongly, though he'd not seen a bee hive anywhere, let alone a single bee. It appeared wherever they were was closer to the pool Posie was visiting. Oh, he'd hate to remove himself from that endlessly warm bath, but if he stayed in for far longer he would drift off for sure. A few more minutes, that was the trick. With a yawn he wished he could have held back, he flipped like a pancake over again. His lazy eye tracked around his surroundings, half acknowledging them.  
  
They whipped into focus when he realized all was not as it had been. Something was absent; missing. Mainly? His clothes.  
  
To say that Naomi jumped a little when she heard Link screech was a understatement. She made a sizeable splash when she fell back into the water. "What in the name of heaven and Hyrule.?" She stood and squeezed the water from her hair, which seemed to have regained a bit of luster, and hurried over to her clothes. "Stay there, Kimi. I'm gonna go see what's got Link all riled up."  
  
They were loose, but she'd managed to pull her clothes on tightly enough as to be decent in male company. She stuck her head through the branches of the willow and hailed, "Liiink?"  
  
"Gah!" Link flipped over on his stomach when Naomi's voice touched his ears. He took a deep breath and submerged himself up to his eyes in the steamy pond.  
  
"Liiiiiink!"  
  
"Naomi! Back! I. I'm not wearing anything! At all!"  
  
He managed to evict a sigh from the gutters of Naomi's throat. "Good grief, Linky-boy. What was all that about?"  
  
Link's skin fused itself with a brilliant pink color that had nothing to do with heat or sunburn. "My. my clothes are... missing."  
  
Now how could anyone loose their clothes? Had she been able to say the pithy words she thought, Link would find himself being called an idiot at that very moment. A very big idiot. But, she figured that she'd better stay on the guy's good side, since he did have current custody of her daughter and he was an expert with the large longsword he carried. She would try to keep her frustration hidden. "Uuhg. OK, how'd you loose them?"  
  
"I don't know! They were here and I turned around, and then they... weren't."  
  
How wonderfully eloquent, Link! That sure helped a lot. "That doesn't help!" Naomi threw up her arms in outrage. "Do you think they blew away; could they have been stolen; what?"  
  
"If they blew away they'd still be in the immediate area. And are they? No! I don't think the wind was strong enough to take my boots and belt, either."  
  
Hmm. Well, he did have a point. Naomi took a chance on the first theory and peered up into the trees; the only green things she could spot were the dreary leaves. "Huh. Could they have been stolen?"  
  
"But we're alone! At least..." He suspiciously drew a circle around him with his eyes. "...I THINK we are..."  
  
"Didn't Knashi say something about some 'Nymph' or another? The King did too, I think. Maybe she took them?"  
  
"What would a nymph do with my clothes? I don't think they'd fit her."  
  
Naomi tried to avoid staring down into the water, still fairly clear for the silt swirling around in it. There was a more initial problem of Link being stranded in the middle of a somewhat shallow pool, stark naked. "First, let's deal with what you're going to wear until we find your normal stuff. Did you bring any spare clothes?"  
  
It would be so like a guy to have intended to wear one thing for a whole entire trip, but Link had obviously done a little planning ahead. Surprisingly he gave a little nod, him chin bobbing in and out of the water. "Yes, there are the clothes I brought for Mount Ipanajou-a thick brown felt undershirt, brown pants, a Yeti Mail-"  
  
"Great. It'll look weird, that combination of purple-ish-white and brown, but I guess fashion wasn't your biggest concern."  
  
Obviously not. Who was going to worry about his looks up there in the snow and hail, where you could barely see a foot in front of your face anyway? "I don't have any socks, though."  
  
"How about shoes? Do you have any more of those?"  
  
Link had had the same pair of boots for longer than he could remember- Kokiri footwear was designed with a magic that grew with its owner until they matured as far as they were going to. He'd never had any other pair, just things he stuck on them. Like the Hover utility. "Uh-uh. Nope."  
  
Naomi thought about that for a second. "Do you still have the clothes from the Fortress?"  
  
Good Goddesses, no! "I should hope not! I left them up in your room."  
  
She let down a breath too heavy for her lungs to hold, built up in her exasperation. "Well, I guess I'm gonna have to be savior to your feet," she grinned with fatigue. "I'm used to walking on unpleasant ground. They used to steal my slippers before I went on a job, back 'home.' I'll lend you my shoes; crossing fingers that they fit."  
  
"Hey-that was an uncommonly genuine act of kindness coming from you. Thanks."  
  
"Yeah, yeah-" Naomi attempted to divert her attentions to the sky, trying not to be flattered. "Don't get all mushy."  
  
"Well, if you're in the mood to be pleasant for once, throw me my backpack and get outta here. I'd like to get dressed, if you don't mind."  
  
"Not at all. Shall I fetch the munchkin while I'm at it and tell her the spa's been cut short?"  
  
"Yes, please do go and get Posie," he sharply corrected. "If you're going to hang around us I beseech you to make an effort to remember names."  
  
Well, maybe Naomi did owe it some to Link to be a little nicer to the poor guy. He did get her out of a pretty tight spot back at the Gerudo's Fortress, and getting around those creeps was never easy. Anyone who did it without dying demanded some respect. Another thing he'd have to change about himself before she would call him a friend-he'd have to wise up. Goddesses, he was a sweet fellow. He'd proved it with his selfless devotion to Posie. And Elaine seemed to think rather reverently of him as a person in general and not a celebrity. And he was brave and valiant and all that sappy stuff heroes were required to be. But he was a bit much his hair color.  
  
She shrugged and turned around. "Your call." She sauntered back between the branches of the low-hanging tree to cut on through to the other side.  
  
"Get dressed, kiddo, Link's got himself wedged into a bit of spot."  
  
Elaine, who had finally grown better accustomed to the water, did not look happy about being told she had to lug herself out again. "You've got to be kidding me! I was just starting to like this-"  
  
"I know, I know; I hate to pull this on ya. But we've gotta go on a search for a missing tunic."  
  
"What happened, exactly?" Elaine now wanted to know.  
  
"Ahh, Link's clothes have gone missing." Naomi's voice had a tone to it that sounded distinctly. over-washed. How a shirt my say things after too many repeated scrubbings. "Don't ask me how. Come up, come on, we're gonna go get Posie."  
  
With regret, Elaine extracted herself from the warm caress of the bubbling spring and threw on her clothes with less than abandon. Her dress was crimped and wrinkled as if she'd slept in it. She drew up the long sleeves to her elbows, where they only barely managed to hug themselves in one spot. No matter how waifishly thin the air, it ate at her wet hair and skin.  
  
Naomi stood by waiting for the girl to finish getting dressed. Elaine finally managed to look up into her face, almost sleepily, and mumble, "OK. OK." She grabbed a few limp locks hanging into her face and flung them back into their spots. "Which way?"  
  
"This-a-way," Naomi pointed. Both her hands went flying up, fingers arrowing off to the left.  
  
"OK." At a plodding pace Elaine set off towards the trunk of the tree. Between a curtain of low-hanging leaves, a small array of about five miniature spring ponds bubbled and seethed in the ground from which they came. A somewhat tinier shrub than the large tree that sheltered them bounced above one near the back, a minute light bobbing upon one of its branches as if it were a carnival ride.  
  
Naomi shrugged and followed wordlessly. Elaine took two handfuls of the wispy greenery and yanked them aside, nosing a hole for her head to come through. Her face appeared to have a long, wafting curtain of verdant hair. "Pose! Hey, Posie! Get dressed!"  
  
Posie looked up from where she reclined, resting her head in the dip of her shield. "Huh?" She sat up with no difficulty, pointing out that the puddle she'd managed to grab was pretty close to indeed being such and not an actual pool. "What's that?" She laid back, bracing herself against her hands, like a cherub in a classical painting. "Wuh?"  
  
The creature with the living locks suddenly grew a second head by the name of Naomi. "Your dad's worked himself into a hole; c'mon out and let's help the poor guy."  
  
"What's wrong?" Navi leaned forward, causing her little twig on that bush to sink a little closer to the surface of the water.  
  
"His clothes have gone missing, would you know?" Naomi said. Every time she mentioned the problem it seemed more and more absurd, and she had to battle just a little harder to resist laughter.  
  
One of Posie's pasty eyebrows kinked, showing that she thought it was an odd situation to be in as much as Naomi did. Normally she was a person very respecting of her elders, but the inherent sardonicism coursing in her veins teased her eyes into rolling that instant. "Right. Give me a moment. Just-duck back inside there and I'll be out in a moment, kay?"  
  
Naomi and Elaine obliged, and the curtain was just a curtain again as they shuffled inside of it. Dripping, Posie crawled out into the air that sent little bolts of ice crawling up and down her back. Her outfit was Kokirish, so it was very similar in make to Link's, but she preferred simpler dress. She had an undershirt, but it was a short-sleeved one, and she discarded the idea of tights. If she ever wore anything extra on her legs, it was pants in winter. She had wool socks and knee-high boots like his, and her tunic was proportionally a tad longer than Link's. But it still folded back at the collar. She had her leather belt around her waist, the blue glass beads set in it like impressionist water droplets. And lastly she slung over her shield strap, her sword's scabbard and her shield firmly clamped in place.  
  
Hiking up her belt, she promenaded inside the dome of the tree with Navi on her shoulder. "Ok. This way, right?" She held up a hand and spun in the direction of the pool they sought. It was off to her own personal right.  
  
Naomi affirmed this. "Yeah. Hope Linky-boy's finished putting on her spare ensemble. I'm looking forward to catching him in cold-weather gear. Considering his choice of colors-it oughta be fairly interesting."  
  
"I hope you realize that you haven't got any; and if you plan on following us up Ipanajou you'd better get some."  
  
The Gerudo dusted Elaine off of her back. "No sweat, kiddo. I'm sure we'll find a town or something before we get there that sells parkas."  
  
The three of them abandoned their petty chit-chat to the floor and headed back towards the spring Link had been bathing in. He stood barefoot at the head on the pond, in the clothes he had packed for the later part of their trip. He had on a heavy shirt and pants of an autumn-leaf brown, and a wrinkled-looking jerkin that had just a hint enough or iridescent lavender to separate it from the snow it was made to break. His long ponytail was slung over his shoulder.  
  
Naomi snorted. "Ooh, don't you ooze savoir faire? Really dashing, Link. Stuns me to a lack of words."  
  
"Sharpen your swords, not you wit, unless you want to be on the receiving end of an equal number of snappy remarks." He spat on the ground to the side of his feet in challenge. "I'd rather not loose that tunic. It's one of my favorites-"  
  
Posie still didn't understand some of Link's little obsessions with certain members of his wardrobe, when all of his getups were practically the same anyway. All green tunics with those gigantic lapels and the hat; maybe a red or blue variant on those once in a while. She shrugged. "Right. How d'you wanna find it?"  
  
"Not like we can call for it," quipped Navi. She stood up on her perch, arms crossed.  
  
Link would not be discouraged. Despite the fact that he really didn't have any sort of a plan. "Naomi said she'd lend me her shoes, so lemmie put those on and then we'll. comb the forest. That'll work. I'm sure they're around the springs somewhere. They can't have gotten far, right?"  
  
"In theory," Naomi sighed, and leaned into a tree trunk.  
  
"We'd cover more ground if we split up," Posie said, a few basic ideas coming into her mind and trying to bond as a complete idea. "Me and Daddy. Elaine and Miss Naomi."  
  
"Thanks but no thanks, kid," lamented Link. "I don't care if we're past the traps; too much creepy stuff is lurking in these woods and I'd like to have the full crowd here to take it on."  
  
"But look at it from a tactical standpoint, Link," Naomi urged, who decided that Posie's thoughts were as good as any. "We'd be more likely to find your stuff that way, you know. Besides. consider her split-up choices! You and her? Aren't you touched? Motivated? Compelled to partake in some father-daughter bonding. thing?"  
  
"It's sentimental, but it's not gonna work." He flexed his hands several times before they retracted into fists. "If something freakish leaps out of a bush, and it's on Posie's side of the trail, what's saying it'll be small enough for her to take it on?"  
  
"The kid's got a miniature longsword. She's pretty good at jabbing, and cutting she's OK with, but she does sort of flail. Y'can tell she was brought up by a broadsword user, at least, and this isn't exactly her native weapon, but she's adjusting. I'd say she could hold something at bay long enough for you to come dashing in."  
  
"I'll admit to playing with blade style, but I don't think she's been too confused. But still! She and Elaine basically have the same amount of damage going for them because her sword is about the same length as Elaine's dagger. And would you expect Elaine to be able to defend herself with that?"  
  
Clever Elaine was already on top of that. "Hey, I've been learning Gerudo things since I was two, and she's been learning fencing. We have our specific talents; we support each other's weaknesses. Yes?"  
  
"I'd suggest me and Elaine go together, then, but I'm guessing that you'd flip your lid over that one."  
  
"Yah." Link was at least glad that she was being honest, and knew she suggested making steel balloons. "Not gonna let ya, sweetheart. I know you're bright for your age, but, nope."  
  
"So what SHOULD we do, then?" Naomi demanded.  
  
"We'll still look, but we're going look together. We've still got four pairs of eyes, all on different levels." As if to illustrate a point, he looked pointedly down at Elaine and Posie, and up a few inches at the only marginally taller Naomi. "How hard of a task are we really looking at?"  
  
"Well, if the effort needed in climbing out of this pitfall is proportional to that of falling in it."  
  
"-The point here is that we ARE looking for clothes, after all, which can't have gone too far."  
  
"I believe I already said that," Naomi grumbled, not completely remembering and hoping that what she'd just said was true. She rubbed the side of her shoulder, feeling the wind march from a trot into a gallop as its northern incarnation came down for a visit. She did not like the thought of more ice ahead. She really hoped they'd actually find a town before they got to the mountain.  
  
The four of them set out at an agitated pace, feet trying to keep slow while pulses frenzied along their shortened nerves. Even though he knew he had no choice, Link had failed to estimate the consequences of wearing wool and fur-of-who-knew-what in a moderately warm climate. So, it itched. Rather unpleasantly.  
  
He called them all to a stop for a second to tug at his long brown sleeves, which were catching passing twigs and cockleburs, while Posie asked him for a drink from the water canteen.  
  
She took a few deep gulps of the water; it was going warm but it was nevertheless a relief for her drying throat. It seemed to grow thicker as its temperature went up, almost as if the fever around them were its inverse. It also had to it the slightly sour tang of water that has frozen and then melted again.  
  
It was screwing the cap back on the bottle and looking up, to give it back to Link, that she saw them.  
  
Her astonished noises causes Elaine to pivot her head around on her neck, following the arrow of Posie's eyeballs. Quick reflexes were the only thing that saved her from bursting out in chortles so heavy she would double over as she hyperventilated. Two palms pasted her lips shut; her cheeks swelled and became red as the amount of chuckles contained in them grew. "Oh-my-Goddesses."  
  
"What's so funny now?" Naomi had only barely reached the horizon of their vision when she realized what she was staring at. Her face ruffled. "Oh my."  
  
Link was engrossed with his sleeves still; he didn't have any attention span left to check over what was making his companions so giggly.  
  
Attempting a straight expression, and a voice flat and unassuming, she asked, "Uh, Link, you wouldn't happen to wear green silk briefs, would you?"  
  
His attentions flew from his shirt to Naomi's back. She had called to him without facing him, largely because she couldn't take her eyes away from the tree. Though the unusual item hanging in it wasn't planning on going anywhere. "Why on earth d'you wanna know that!?"  
  
"Because if you do-"-she had to give a little snort to whet her appetite for humor-"-I think we found some of your stuff."  
  
Morbidly, Link dragged his feet in front of Naomi and slowly summed up the sallow tree. Draped over a low branch, shining dully as the wind fluted them, were indeed a pair of green silk briefs. And unfortunately, Link recognized them.  
  
"Ha!" Naomi finally let herself go. "Don't need that question answered. You've gone bright red-up to the tips of your ears! Well, one down."  
  
Thinking about fetching his underwear down from a tree, in front of all those girls, he mortified himself. But he wouldn't dare ask any of them to get it. If anything that thought distressed him even more! Clearly it was showing, too. He felt the heat of his embarrassment churning in his face, and he more than likely resembled a root vegetable by now. He murmured incorrigible and senseless words under his breath; words of distress and slight anger.  
  
Navi piped up. "Well, we found part of your clothes! Best fetch it down, hey, Link?"  
  
Link's lips shriveled back into his mouth and he refused to speak. He shook his head mutely.  
  
"Aww, c'mon, Link, you gotta get 'em down sometime! Link? Linky-boy? Linky Cream Pie?"  
  
He uttered a small cry of outrage at the last name Navi had called him. "Hey! That's Saria's special nickname for me-"-he was so upset he didn't realize the humiliating personal information he was divulging-"- and no one but her can call me that." He snatched at the air, Navi constantly flying out of reach. If he could catch her, he planned to torture her.  
  
"I can make it worse! I know all your nicknames! Blinky, like Arill calls you? Unca Linky, like Click? I can do a good impression of Posie if need be."  
  
He finally stopped, Navi a few inches in front of his face, as if he'd been drilled full of sedative. "I. you. grrr." He finally made a guttural growl with clenched fists. "Alright, but only if everyone else looks away."  
  
Navi had been looking forward to watching Link scoot up the tree for his purloined undergarments, and Naomi wouldn't have minded the chuckle. But Posie and Elaine obediently turned around, and closed their eyes as double insurance against peeking. With all eyes everywhere but on him, Link threw his arms in a bitter embrace around the tree's coarse truck and hiked uncomfortably up it.  
  
He sat in the branch the pants had caught on and pulled his backpack over to his front. The front flap opened and he stuck the offending briefs inside. Once they were safely out of sight, he leapt to the ground and shivered under the recoil. He didn't have fancy heels to absorb the pressure.  
  
"You can turn around now," he beckoned. They did so.  
  
Along the trail they blazed afterward, they encountered no more clothes swinging lazily off of branches.  
  
Presently, Naomi noticed something peculiar growing between the roots of a wan ash tree-unusually perky in the dreary glimmers of the forest; a bundle of tiny yellow wildflowers from which escaped a powerful smell. She temporarily called the party to a halt when she bent down to examine the delicate little blooms full in face.  
  
"That's funny. I haven't seen any grass or flowers anywhere in these woods. Where'd these come from?"  
  
A fat, bumbling, furry little bee interrupted her gazing when it ambled into her line of vision, alighting on one of the miniscule golden platforms that just barely supported its weight. It jilted the flowers into a sway, but the bee seemed to enjoy the rocking motion as it had its fill of nectar from the flower and hummed off.  
  
"That explains the honey," blatantly stated Posie as her eyes trailed the insect off into the yonder. "But the hives."  
  
"Maybe someone around here keeps bees?" inquired Link while another honey bee brushed over the bridge of his nose.  
  
"I think they're wild," sighed Naomi while she stood up. "I see the gooey stuff all over the place, but I haven't seen flowers like this yet. If you were a beekeeper, would you put your hives in a place where your bugs wouldn't have any food?"  
  
One of the black-and-yellow insects chose as its perch Elaine's shoulder, and at first she shied away from it with a start. The creature jumped up and hovered there, its gaze no more than a centimeter wide, and yet oddly appearing dejected and disappointed. Elaine felt this curious fire on her body and walked closer to it, holding out her finger. She was no longer afraid of its sting, for some reason. It landed there gladly, and it gave off a series of clicking buzzes that exotically sounded like laughter. That little bee felt intelligent.  
  
"Hello," she tried, and everyone suddenly looked at her as if to ask, "Who are you talking to?"  
  
The worker let off the feeling of a smile. Somewhere a voice squeaked inside her ear, "Hello!"  
  
They all heard it. Naomi's arms fell lax at her side, and she looked off in bafflement. Remembering the wailing rock, Link just shrugged and smiled. Posie hadn't a clue who she was greeting, but she did greet, with her usual chorus of "Hiya!"  
  
"Who. are. you?" Naomi apparently thought that she was going schizophrenic. Her knees bent all of a sudden and her arms held her body up on the air.  
  
"Oh, I'm only Nafta," the squeaky words replied to them all. "But most people have another name for me."  
  
The bug left Elaine's finger and chose a nearby rock to sit upon. Taking a deep breath, the bee was wreathed in an auburn mist and began to grow.  
  
The bee's middle legs were quickly absorbed into its sides as its body lengthened and waxed. Its wings seemed to grow a harder inner structure beyond its lacelike veins; actual bones were appearing to make the wings more hard-wearing. The multi-faceted bee's eyes shrunk into the retreating skull and became two dark marbles gazing with interest. The bee's mandibles were jerked to the side and ballooned into soft pink lips; the remaining legs elongated into smooth pink human limbs. With no time the bee was in the form of a young Hylean woman, save for antenna and now almost-reptilian wings. She was wrapped in an exotic fur no animal Link knew could produce, harsh and patterned just like a bee's abdomen.  
  
"Most people simply call me the Nymph;" and her voice was in the same branch of family as the Freezair's. "The Nymph of the Springs."  
  
Unsure of the proper way to react, Link gave a quasi-bow and steepled his fingers together. "And I'm sure it's a pleasure, Miss Nafta," he replied, not used to seeing women sprout out of insects.  
  
It was at that exact moment that she chose to make a very unusual comment. "You have very fine clothes, sir."  
  
"What?" five simultaneous voices wondered aloud. Eight eyes found Link, who tugged at the cloth of his present garb.  
  
Plainly Nafta sensed their confusion, for she blithely edified them. "No, I meant your other clothes! Those lovely, soft green ones." she crooned. "Kokiri make, aren't they? They're very pleasant-a sheer delight to wear," she giggled. "I'm particularly fond of those you're wearing, little girl. Just like his, aren't they?"  
  
Posie protectively grasped the lapel of her own outfit. "Yes, but-how would you know what they're like? Unless you-"  
  
"Collecting clothes is a hobby of mine." She said this with all seriousness. She pulled up her long legs and bare feet, curling up on the rock like a mermaid in an ancient painting. All of her visible skin, however, turned a slightly rosier shade of carnation.  
  
"Well, you shouldn't go-collecting-clothes others are still wearing," Link tried to scold her.  
  
"You weren't wearing them-" she defended herself.  
  
"Good grief. Didn't your parents ever teach you not to steal?" Elaine held a stark gaze at the Nymph's face.  
  
"Sorry. What can I say? I am a nymph. Our cousins are incubi and succubae. We have few morals."  
  
"Well, the truth hurts," bemoaned Naomi. She fell purposefully and sat crossed on the ground. "I suppose brutal honesty ain't a terrible trait to posses."  
  
"The truth is only brutal if you don't take pride in it," the Nymph sighed and a struck a pose. "I may have a beautiful, slender body in human form, but would it truly be so lovely if I didn't like it? What if I so desired to be round and plump as the little insects I love?"  
  
"You're changing the subject! That's totally different from stealing," Elaine retaliated, fingering her little dagger by her side and pondering her one foot, clad only in a somewhat-mildewing sock.  
  
"And what would your definition of stealing be, then?"  
  
Elaine shut her mouth up about that one. She would have likely said that stealing was taking something that rightfully belonged to someone else, but then, that denotation made her guilty as charged. True, the wounded Lizafos had given her his dagger in the end, but she had taken it from him at first. The little copper-steel-what was that dagger made of anyway? It was a shiny reddish color, but it was obviously covered in rust. Or some rust-like substance.  
  
"No answer? Just I thought. You don't know. Tricky thing, morality- why do you think I never bothered?"  
  
"Look, can you at least give me my clothes back?" Link strode up to her, not afraid to stare the somewhat intimidating fay creature down. "I'm not asking much; I'm sure you've got plenty of other clothes around here somewhere. Right?"  
  
"Perhaps I do; perhaps you're asking me to walk around naked," she blushed. Link gulped. Those words put unpleasant images in his head.  
  
"No, I wouldn't ask that-I know how humiliating that would be. But if." He swallowed a heavy sigh. Shrugging, he offered, "If I gave you the clothes I'm wearing now, would you give me those back?"  
  
"Surely you don't mean those horrid things?!" She posed like a mermaid on the rock, placing her hand over her heart. "Most certainly not! I'm not interested in giving up these clothes; if that's all you want to talk about, leave."  
  
"Be reasonable, ma'am-"-But the Nymph turned up her nose.  
  
"Hey, I hate to see Linky-Boy in this much torture unless I'm causing it. Speaking fairy to fairy, can't you go easy on my buds here and give us the tunic so we can move on?"  
  
"What connection have you with these humans, pixie?" Nafta scowled down the bridge of her nose at Navi, plainly not holding the lesser forest fairies in high esteem.  
  
Navi shrugged. "Well, I tried to be reasonable." She swung over the side of Link's face on his ear, landing feet first on his shoulder. Tugging the top of said pointy ear, she confidentially told him-"This is gonna come as a big blow to ya, Linky-Boy, so cool it for a little while." She addressed Nafta then.  
  
"These humans are pets of mine." Her hands made great swooping gestures that plainly indicated the entire group. Naomi most of all seemed taken aback by this, though she took it from the rolling of Link's eyeballs that this was actually some sort of calculated move. Clamping her mouth shut, she tried to seem as dumb and ignorant as she expected a pet human ought.  
  
"All of them?" She chuckled, pinching her chin delicately. "My, you've exotic tastes. Gerudo? And your others tolerate that? Fine handling. And I suppose you're ready to take responsibility for their outbursts?"  
  
"Entirely." Navi even bowed formally to the Nymph, who gave a nod of approval.  
  
"Very well then. I forgive you. Were they the only reason you were dragged here?"  
  
"No, not entirely. We were hoping to pass by here. Would you allow it?"  
  
For once, Nafta finally sat up straight, long legs dangling over the rock's smooth face. "Depends. I have to know your alliance first. Hy-Rules, you know," and she giggled girlishly at her own pun.  
  
Navi looked up into Link's face, trying to wear a look of direction on her face. "Play the song of our alliance, Link," she said, leaving her usual endearing tone out of his name. Link was a bit puzzled-Zelda's Lullaby, the song of their alliance, would probably get them past the Nymph, but he wouldn't regain his clothes.  
  
But acting in his role, he had to obey Navi. As a loyal pet, naturally. He reached over his back and felt inside the knapsack for his Ocarina, finally making out its holes among a score of other objects. As he put the blue instrument to his mouth, Navi hurriedly reminded him to "Play as low, as soft, and with as much emotion as you possibly can."  
  
The notes escaped his blue instrument quickly at first, but he quickly snapped up Navi's line and put an immediate bunker on his music. The soft notes were barely audible, but they trilled and frolicked and gamboled in the wind with all the fancy accents and grace notes Link could muster. Their ancestors were deep, plodding notes, but their bass bulk was augmented with surprising agility.  
  
And Nafta was going, going, gone. Out like a light on the rock. Link looked somewhat shocked. How'd Navi know that would work so well? Well, he would grant that Navi knew a lot, if not too many things, and it was, after all, Zelda's Lullaby.  
  
Perhaps it was cruel, what they did to the poor Nymph after that. But after the way she'd taunted, the four of them felt she'd royally deserved it. They hadn't taken everything she wore-she still had her bizarre bee- skin coat-but otherwise, she was bare. Even Link and Naomi ran like school children merrily ahead, Link brandishing his regained tunic behind him like a banner. He still had to change back into his typical garb, but he'd put his old stable boots back on and tucked his long hair back inside his classic cap. Their laughter rode upon the wind, ready to touch the dark woods with its brightness-and taunt the deceptive Nafta when she awoke.  
  
Hearts high in their chests, Link, Posie, Elaine and Naomi felt ready to tackle any challenge the Goddesses threw at them. 


	12. Glowball

((CAN: Ever since the conception of the FanFic(yes, Spinning Slash is now officially a FanFic with two capital letters) as a whole, I've wanted to do a Navi-Centric chapter. After all, I do kinda owe it to the Glowball after pretty much shunting her to the side in Chapter 8. I kinda got into that after the ending of the last chapter, where she displayed some fairy prowess to outwit the Nymph. I also feel like I'm really ignoring Posie and Elaine, who are the stars, after all. So guess what? They get a chapter all to themselves! Hooray!))  
  
((Oh, and just for confirmation: I know I'm calling Zelda a Sheikah here, which sounds weird, but I mean it. Look, it'll get explained a lot better at the start of the next chapter. Promise. This one's shorter than usual, which I don't mind.))  
  
Spinning Slash, Chapter 12: Glowball  
  
Their exuberance wore off after about an hour, when they realized that the five of them were wandering though the forest aimlessly. There were no more traps, there were no more Nymphs; but there weren't any maps to help them anymore, either, since Link had put his own out of commission with the burn salve. There were just trees; trees and bushes; trees and bushes and rocks; trees and bushes and rocks and growling stomachs.  
  
Link's arm was becoming leaden as he swung his sword in a seemingly endless series of hacks at the air, cutting up foliage that blocked their path. But he preferred moving this way; bumbling through the forest at home, Saria forced him to delicately push aside branches and limbs so as not to harm the plants. She claimed she heard them "scream" every time he dug his blade into their stems. More often than not, the only screams he heard where his own when a rebellious branch smacked him square across the face.  
  
Now the sun had reached its apex in the sky, and it felt just as hot in these woods as it had out in the Gerudo's desert. It rained down like flaming hail on their backs, not caring for the heavy canopy of leaves it first had to bypass. Everywhere it struck, their sunburns from the day past intensified and peeled. Naomi had enough pigment in her skin to help keep her skin from scorching, not to mention enough experience in the sun to last a lifetime. But even taking her place of birth into order, she really preferred the coolness of the shade.  
  
"Too-hot. Can't-move-on."  
  
Posie silently passed her shield up to Elaine, who took it with tired gratitude. She sat it upon her head like a hat, keeping a hand on it to prevent it from falling off. The comfort it provided was minimal, and the sun-baked metal steamed, but at least it provided her with the illusion she was being shaded.  
  
"This is not September weather," Posie then observed. Never was there a happy medium for the hero, hero wannabe, and tagalongs-it was a constant flash, hot-hotter-hot-cold-colder-cold-hot again.  
  
Link's head was wrapped in a blue-and-white hood of feathers, his Roc's Cape serving as a makeshift cowl. The feathers that held the essence of the wind in their down tried to carry a baby breeze to his head, but all it did was force him to inhale the smell of the sweat on his face.  
  
"I dunno about you all, but I could do with a lunch break," Naomi sighed, having heard the gurgle of her innards in her ears again. "I haven't eaten anything since that fish-fest this morning."  
  
"Me, too," moaned Elaine, though she'd prefer something to drink first. Her thirst had been abated after the incident with the acid river, but when her words were hindered by her tongue sticking to the roof her mouth, it was time for a drink.  
  
"Posie?" Link spoke up, finally, after a long and sullen silence of hacking at shrubs. "Do we have a majority vote?"  
  
"Very." She dropped where she was instantly, wiping her forehead and scooting around a little to fix her crossed legs. "I'm hungry!"  
  
"Hey, Hungry, I'm Thirsty," chuckled Elaine sourly as she fell into the embrace of a tree's trunk and let Posie's shield scatter. A little too hardly; she winced when her red arms scraped up against the rough, ashy bark.  
  
Link knelt at the head of their impromptu picnic grounds and opened up his seemingly bottomless backpack. "Let's see. canteen, right." He tossed it to Elaine, who released the tree and caught it easily. "Lunch, lunch. no, food's in this pouch." He folded over the flap he'd been looking through to nudge open another one. He gave a spasmodic shake of his head and the Cape he was wearing slid to the floor. "Hmm. 'Ey, Naomi!"  
  
"Yeah?" She'd dug her heavy scimitars out of their scabbards and rammed them into the ground. She sat down between them, taking them as pillars around her imaginary throne.  
  
"More sandwiches, some kinda salad, or are you feeling brave?" He grinned mischievously, eyes atwinkle. She was a Gerudo; time to see if she could take some real heat.  
  
Naomi returned the smirk. She had no idea when Link was packing up his sleeve, but she wasn't about to be labeled a chicken. Though considering what the Cuccos of Hyrule were like, perhaps that was not such an insult. "I'm feeling brave. Show me the best you've got."  
  
Link pulled a curious glass jar out of the pack, its lid sealed around the edges with a curiously un-waxy red wax. He passed it to Naomi, who pressed it to her face to observe it. Inside it was a red liquid about the consistency of tomato sauce, peppered with chunks of beef and various vegetables. Little flecks of green, yellow and black floated around inside. There might've been red specks, too, but they matched their surroundings with ease.  
  
"Looks pretty tame to me, Linky-boy. Average stew of. some kind. Nothing fancy."  
  
"Ah, but you're wrong on all three counts! It's not tame, it's not average, and considering it's Saria's cooking-fancy if you consider the fact that no one can cook as well as she can."  
  
"Yeah, well, I'm sure I can hold my own." Naomi glanced over the jar with an overly-cherubic smile, taunting Link. Not glancing at her hands, she gave the jar's lid a twist and lifted it off.  
  
Her sinuses were scrubbed clean as a powerful sweet-spicy smell assaulted her nose, which only hoisted her confidence up a notch. The Gerudos were pioneers in the game of fiery food preparation, and she'd grown bored of foods that would sear half the flesh off the inside of any other mortal's mouth. Seeing how many buttons of Link's she could push at once, she brought it up to her face and took an entire breath's worth of the aching smell. It was a bit painful on the olfactory senses. But she wouldn't dare let Link break her.  
  
Link crossed his arms and looked unimpressed. He even shook his head a little, to show how much it jaded him. If she'd been there the night it had first been made, she wouldn't be so at ease now. He recalled very plainly the first thing he'd said upon swallowing it-"Yikes!-" but, in retrospect, that'd been an understatement.  
  
"You'll need these," he stated very plainly, and threw to her a spoon and one of the spare canteens. She caught the first; laughed at the second.  
  
"You think I'd need that? Well, that's where you're wrong, Link." She daintily held the spoon and reached down into the jar, scooping up a large piece of meat saturated in the red juice. "Now behold, a master of the piquant palatables at work!"  
  
She took the mouthful with reckless abandon.  
  
The instant she realized what she'd just bitten into was an instant too late. Regret surged through her mouth on the tendrils of flavor, belonging to a variety of chilies-among them habanjeroes, the spiciest peppers of them all. Tears flowed freely from the corners of her eyes as the stew charred a path down her throat, and she hastily set the jar down in favor of the canteen. Five deep gulps of sweet water later, she exclaimed-"What is that edible excuse for a four-alarm fire?"  
  
"It is fire-Din's Fire, that is," Link smiled. "Saria's specialty, which is fairly interesting considering the forest is usually her scope." He wore his triumphantly-crossed arms like a badge. "The first thing she managed to make successfully-by, ironically screwing up the recipe really bad-has remained in her repertoire."  
  
"And you can stand to eat that stuff?"  
  
"Yep! My favorite-Posie's favorite too."  
  
Naomi looked down at Posie with something akin to reverence. She had up until that point been watching the interesting contest between her father and the Gerudo, and jumped a little when Naomi suddenly turned toward her. "You. That. I can't believe it," she ranted, but hardly really speaking to Posie.  
  
Posie smiled. "Believe it. I've loved the stuff since-well, since Mommy would actually let me try it."  
  
Naomi stared as if she still didn't quite accept that fact. "You've got some kinda crazy endurance, kiddo."  
  
There was that natural endurance again. And this time, it was genuine. "Well, thanks. Most of the rest of the things Mommy knows how to make are fairly tame, so perhaps it's because I need a little break from the ordinary once in while. Or maybe my tongue is stronger than I think-I can down a glass of clear kinra pretty quickly, but you know what that stuff's like."  
  
Naomi smiled. "The Gerudo have a penchant for intense edibles; you'd not be out of place among them." She studied the hardened, intellectual look behind Posie's eyes, and added, "And you just understood every word of that last sentence, and that freaks me out."  
  
Posie cheerfully shrugged. "I have good taste in books, and I learn fast. So it goes, and I'm a five-year-old with a fifty Rupee vocabulary."  
  
Link waved his arm rapidly, trying to cause enough of a silent commotion in the edges of Naomi's vision to catch her attention. He heavily swallowed a mouthful of some sort of fruit(he had the rest of the pulpy plant in his hand) on his reply. "You know, she's my kid, and her intelligence disturbs me at times, too. Not like it's a bad thing, when your kid's a genius, but it can be frightening."  
  
"And my daughter hangs out with her. I'm still so unfamiliar with Elaine-how much has she picked up?"  
  
"From what I've gathered, a fair amount." Link raised the yellowish pod to his mouth and took another bite, the flesh of it squishing loudly in rebellion and spraying Link's chin with sticky nectar. He didn't have to chew it much-it was more an issue of slurping-but he wiped his gauntlet along the bottom of his face afterward. "And you're probably looking at me with juice all over my face and thinking I look like something of an idiot in comparison. Am I right?"  
  
"Not particularly, but you do look sticky," she laughed, for once choosing to stick with more light-hearted comments on Link's humor.  
  
Meanwhile Elaine had stolen the jar of spicy stew for Posie, and Posie had commandeered herself a spoon with the help of Navi. There were no bowls in the backpack-they could crush too easily-but Posie didn't mind eating from the jar, of course. She took one spoonful, a gigantic swallow to someone her size and delighted in the tingling feeling the various hot ingredients in the soup left on her tongue. Doing her best to eat just a little neater than Link had been doing, she took small sips off the spoon and occasionally munched on a larger chunk of meat or vegetable. Elaine grabbed a small block of sharp yellow cheese from the sack, nibbling on it while she and Posie chatted. They wondered at great length what would happen when the four of them returned to their respective homes.  
  
"Mommy won't like hearing about the traps back there," Posie lamented, leaning her chin against the jar. "She'll fret on and on about how I could've gotten hurt."  
  
"I think she'd be more disgraced to hear how you forgot what Deku Scrubs were called on Saturday," Elaine chuckled. "'Funny mad plant person?' That's low."  
  
"Hey, you and I both know-we have our specific talents. Swords, Gerudo stuff. Reading, spelling. Remembering monster names isn't one of mine."  
  
"Coming from the child of the great Link, that's vaguely pathetic," sighed Elaine only somewhat seriously. "I know if you put your heart to it, you could remember 'em all. Like I've always told ya, concentration and determination! Pop quiz. About two feet tall, a greenish-blue hue, can also come in red and it's highly allergic to magical powders! Don't touch it, or it'll literally shock you! What is it?"  
  
Posie knew this one well, and felt Elaine had started easy for a reason-she saw these creatures wandering through her home woods all the time. "Chu-Chu. But that's a gimmie. Something harder, if you will."  
  
Elaine searched her mind for an esoteric creature. "Hmm. OK, how's this one? Tall, with spindly legs and a gigantic, single eye. Not to mention a sleek black body hard as armor. What's that, eh?"  
  
"Ummm. Ghoma! One of those used to live in the forest, a long time ago. back when Daddy was still a kid. Not so hard, though. Try me again, and something tougher!"  
  
Elaine smiled, with just the beast in mind. "Alrighty, then. You'll never guess this one. It's tall, about six feet high. Roughly two of those are in its wire-like tail. It has two magnetic hands attached to its sleek black body, and it has an affinity for anything metal. It also like to throw things about and it might remind you of a shoe. What's that?"  
  
Posie's grin was the broadest at the end of the very last question, because she all too well knew the answer. Elaine was well aware of this, but she'd wanted to make her friend smile. For she'd done nothing else but go and describe Posie's favorite monster: "That's a Smasher!"  
  
"Of course! It's not like my sarcasm wasn't evident." She took a few more bites of her cheese. "Well, I'm tired of quizzing, personally. You don't need an encyclopedic knowledge, anyway-not yet. Wait until you're out adventuring on your own."  
  
Posie silently agreed and delved further into her stew.  
  
Some feet away, Link spat a few wrinkled black seeds at the ground, last remnants of the large, pithy fruit he'd been snacking upon. He gazed skyward, up at a ceiling that was slowly turning the color of a quarry. The ground still smelt dry and confined, but an ionic crackle teased along its length. It was still warm enough, but rain felt evident.  
  
"Looks like the weather plans to turn foul on us," Link observed. "Hope it doesn't start to thunder and lightning. Too many trees. one could easily get hit. could start fires, or worse."  
  
"What's worse than that?" ask Naomi. "Given our present situation, of course."  
  
"We could be standing beneath it," offered Elaine, which Link nodded to despite the fact that it had been his cutting-off.  
  
"I get enough bolts to the body back at home from Saria," Link sighed, with only partial contempt. Better and angry Saria than no Saria at all, he thought morosely. "So it's not my preferred method of execution."  
  
"Nice rain though." Naomi perked up a little, chancing to lift her chin just slightly. "It'd be manna from heaven. It's too hot in the parched forest."  
  
"I wouldn't say no to setting up camp for a little bit," shrugged Posie. "Settle down in one spot for a moment. Miss Naomi can soak up the rain while we do our best to avoid it."  
  
"Good pitch, bad location for the seminar," Link lamented. He finally toppled on his knees to sit cross-legged on the ground. "We can't set up here. The trees are way too close together. Besides, we'd have to find a clearing of a fairly good size to set up-away from roots, incase the storm turns electrical." He flashed a glance up at the sky again, checking that all was still safe for them among the clustered copses.  
  
"Ah, I'm too tired to move just yet," yawned Elaine, who plaintively slid herself downward to rest her head on a particularly cushiony-looking gnarl. "Gimmie a moment t' rest."  
  
Link stuck out his lower lip, in a kind of sympathy pout. "Poor kid. I hate to force you guys on ahead if you're tired. You put up with the relentless walk yesterday, maybe you've earned yourself a break."  
  
"I'm with her," gaped Posie, who finally set aside her cutlery and shoved aside the jar. Heat combined with a full stomach sent her woozy, and she wanted nothing more to lie down in what little shade could be found at noon.  
  
Naomi, however, uneasily stared upward. "But we can't stay here. If there's lightning."  
  
"I could carry Posie, no sweat," Link agreed mostly with himself. "She's so small, it isn't a problem. Are you up to carrying Elaine?"  
  
She didn't look happy about her reply, but it was remorseful in its honesty. "No, I'm aching enough as it is. What can we do?"  
  
Navi, who was relaxing in the hollow of an older tree by Link's head, put forward her own suggestion. "One of you could go forward and find a place to wait the storm out, and the other could stay here. That's pretty easy, isn't it?"  
  
Link's head didn't move, but his eyes traced an obvious path over to Naomi's face. "Well, I still don't trust her around Elaine. not to go running off with her. so it'd better be me."  
  
"No way. I'm not getting up. I'm still exhausted-you go on ahead, Linky-boy, I won't run off with your wards."  
  
"Sorry. Not gonna let that happen." Link knitted his arms indignantly. "You go."  
  
"You go!"  
  
"No. you go. Go!"  
  
"You ain't gonna talk me into it, Link! You go, I stay, and I won't compromise."  
  
Navi clicked her tongue. "How like humans." She leaned slightly out of her tree hole, acting bemused. "You refuse to move forward yet you know you can't remain where you are. Is there any aspect of you creatures not swathed in paradox?" Her tone was very high and lofty.  
  
"Well then, what do you suggest?" prompted Naomi, who kept her arms still though it was clear she wanted to jab fingers at Navi. One finger in particular. "If you're the mystic fairy with all the answers, give us one so we can make use of it!"  
  
"If I were one of you, I'd talk myself into watching after the children while both of you go on ahead. Though it's clear you don't care for my suggestions."  
  
Link tilted his head from side to side, as if letting the idea wash around in his brain and spread about evenly. "Actually, that's a pretty good idea. thanks, Navi! Naomi?"  
  
"Wait!" Navi spurted. "I was being facetious! I wasn't actually suggesting."  
  
Naomi unwillingly foisted herself up to comply with Link's request. "Dunno, sure it's wise to let that thing watch over our kids?"  
  
"She's goofed up but once in the task, so I say she's a go. Come on! Let's move."  
  
"Nooooo! Wait! I was kidding! Link! Come on! Link. Naomi?"  
  
Link wore a blithe, ignoring smile, and his voice rose to the clouds on the strings of a familiar anthem. Only this time, he(for some reason) sang the self-promoting and irreverent Freezair version: "Link, he come to town." Naomi rocked her head in a way that suggested she might have been rolling her eyeballs.  
  
Navi released a sigh-in an even more fanciful setting, this might have been accompanied by a little cloud coming out of her mouth. Her wings wanted to start slowly, in a way we might compare to an old lawnmower, and her cool fire ignited like a will-o'-the-whisp inside the tree hollow.  
  
Bobbing up and down in an erratic flight pattern, she bubbled her way across steely air to hover just above the peaceful Posie and Elaine. She gave a little fairies' mumble of, "I suppose if all they do is sleep, this won't be too terrible." Caressing her exposed shoulders, she frowned and took perch upon a particularly snarled root. She cleared her throat a little and announced, just in case the girls were still awake, "Hope you two aren't too comfortable, because, you know, we may have to move at a moment's notice."  
  
There was no response, save for a few sputtering breathing noises. A gnat had flown into Elaine's mouth and she coughed it out, before resuming her relaxed state of being.  
  
"I hate babysitting," she groaned at her predicament. She attempted to lie back on the twisted plant, though she found it altogether too knobby to suit her tastes. Shrugging a little, she pulled up with a little puff. Her stomach whined up at her, and she lamented not asking Link for a bit of a snack while they'd been dining. Fairies could go many years without food- but the occasional snack was still handy to prevent severe discomfort.  
  
Announcing to the air, she loudly proclaimed, "I'm going scavenging! If either of you are still awake, I'll be right back! Don't worry about me!" The little pixie darted off into a bush, possibly one that contained berries.  
  
When Navi was fully submerged in the leafy jungle gym, Posie chanced to open one azure eye. Flashing left and right, it caught no bright white hints in the edges of its vision. She hissed softly at Elaine, urging her out of stasis. "Psst! Hey! She's gone!"  
  
"Uhh," Elaine wordlessly agreed. Sitting up, her head did many takes to insure them that they were truly by themselves. "Hey! We pulled that off pretty well."  
  
"I love doing that to the Glowballs," Posie chuckled with feelings uncharacteristically bordered on malice as she came to a stand. But as many have before noticed, all human beings have a dark side. "You don't know how many times I've been able to slip away from them by pretending to be asleep. You think they'd learn."  
  
"You'd think, wouldn't you?" Elaine wanted to gaily burst out laughing, but silence was to be maintained if a smooth getaway was to be accomplished. "So we have a couple minutes to burst free and clear. What should we do, once we've escaped Madame Talksalot?"  
  
"Explore this forest for ourselves. Daddy's always told me, 'Half the fun of the adventure is wandering about and seeing the sights."  
  
Elaine nodded. "Right. We might even find a clearing before Mr. B and Mom do."  
  
"Yeah, and then we can brag about actually doing something on this adventure, instead of just blindly following. Grab your dagger." Posie strolled over to Elaine's side and nabbed her scattered shield. Link had left the majority of his backpack in the lane ahead-she galloped over to it and began to ferret about inside of it for her bow. Itching for the chance to try it out for herself, she slung her quiver around her back and took a firm grasp of her supple weapon.  
  
Elaine seemed poorly equipped in comparison, but she showed a determination not to be outdone. She decided to pry open what was left of Link's tack and pick out a weapon for herself. She threw aside the crystal of the real Din's Fire and folded over the discarded Roc's Cape in her search for something small enough for her to carry. She pulled open a leather satchel near the bottom of the bag and found it filled with a sparkling soft green powder that smelt of lime and wet fungus. The bag of Magic Powder went into one of her pockets, the one that also contained her mangled pack of cards.  
  
Posie watched her search with interest, until her friend could stand beside her and feel well-protected. "Right then," she spoke upward in an almost condescending tone. (Almost, but not quite. She wasn't all that cruel.) "We can set off in one of three. well, no, we can't go that way, Navi's that way. two. no, Daddy and Miss Naomi went that way. err, pretty much one direction. Shall we?"  
  
"Yep," Elaine said swiftly. The two of them marched off between a pair of shrubs, both of them seemingly barring worried expressions. As if they were conscious beings, concerned for the two children. Given that the place was Hyrule, this was not at all unlikely.  
  
Though they had been quiet with their departure, Navi heard the sounds of a few cracking twigs with her more sensitive fay ears and twisted around. In her arms she carried three berries of a depressing shade, and a highly blunted taste. But though not astounding, it was bearable nourishment for the imp. Trying her best not to drop any of the swelling fruit orbs, she drifted out of the bush on a self-made current and tensely checked around a leaf. She asked tentatively, "Posie? Elaine?"  
  
All that showed in the bare dust where they had lain were a few scuffs, perhaps to suggest the movement off their feet.  
  
"Ahhhh! Oh-my-Goddesses!" Navi keened on sight of the empty patch, and let go of her ashen load to zip around the space frantically. She spun about the area Posie and Elaine had rested in before the berries hit the forest floor, splattering with little bursts of a clear juice. "No! Where did they go? Posie! Elaine! Goddesses, I'm deader than Ganon if Link and Naomi come back before I find them." Her entire body cringed into a ball.  
  
Her small voice managed to carry to the traveling pair. "Uh-oh," Posie observed. "Looks like we got out just in time. Better run."  
  
"Amen!" Elaine expediently lifted her pace and dashed on ahead, as fast as congestive flora would permit her to.  
  
Posie cracked out her sword as she started to run, following the given example by snatching at all those branches that snatched back. A flurry of leaves was kicked up behind them, easily revealing their position as they were lofted high above their heads. Elaine tried to remedy this by grasping a handful of the oddly fluid Magic Powder and throwing it over her shoulder. The leaves continued to fly, but an unfortunate insect caught in the updraft of cascading particles metamorphosed into a living, breathing turnip-creature that fell at their feet.  
  
"Dangit!" The plant-animal was hardly intelligent, but it bounded about wildly giving bruises to the two if they dared stand in the way. Elaine reached for her weapon and made salad garnish of the enchanted vegetable, which became harmless and normal as soon as the fine red point cut along its length. Elaine had learned a quick lesson about the natures of the Powder.  
  
There were leaving a very audible trail of destruction now. Navi, with ears keen as the rush of a Shell Blade, had no problem signaling in on the source of all the cracking branches. Getting there was another issue entirely, however-fairies could reach a top speed of about 5 miles and hour, which wasn't bad considering their size. Flying through leaves and branches was another issue, however, and Navi hadn't the greatest acceleration in the world. And she couldn't fly very high, either-more than 15 feet off the ground, and she could start to get heady. Many of these trees were easily twice that.  
  
Meanwhile, Posie and Elaine had started to drift into foliage so thick they might as well have been digging through it. It was if Farore had placed plants such as to create a twisted obstacle course for them when they arrived here, so many millennia after the land's creation. Posie certainly wished she had the power of the slash in her now-how easy would it be to clear a path then! Cutting was becoming difficult, but not because her shoulder was seizing up-it was because her unoccupied left arm itched like crazy.  
  
"Put down the sword, then, and scratch it," Elaine sort of leadenly replied when Posie made her distress public. The lack of oxygen in her brain, caused by her constant exhaustion, seemed to be making her act stupid.  
  
"Hello? We're kind of running here?"  
  
"In here, then," Elaine groaned, and jerked Posie off into in an unbent bush. Posie looked darkly at her friend and their spontaneous hiding place, but she was grateful to drop her jaded arm and send all her loaded guns at the tingling limb. It was good that itching was such a mindless activity, because Posie still had to keep much of her attention on the world outside the shrub.  
  
Navi, tracing the path the two rouge girls had taken, stumbled into their rough-hewn path of getaway. Butchered twigs and jetsam leaves littered the forest floor along their path, of some many shapes and varieties it might've been the spilt contents of a dryad's cereal box. She buzzed about like an oversized white bumblebee, calling out the names of the two missing children. "Pooooosssssieeeee? Elaaaaaaine?"  
  
"Great!" softly snapped Elaine as the distant hearkening reached the tips of her ears and slid down their smooth curves into her mind. "Here comes the Glowball. Let's move, Posie."  
  
"My arm is insanely tired." she sighed as she foisted herself up on the balls of her heels. "Elaine, would you mind cutting at the bushes this time?"  
  
"Sure. You look behind us and make sure Navi's not getting too close." Twin chimes rang out as a sword was sheathed and a dagger drawn in the darkness of the bush.  
  
"Right. And I'll pelt her with a few arrows, just in case she does start to close in on us." Posie had her bow clamped firmly in her right hand, left behind her back to grab her first arrow. She never could remember which hand she was supposed to hold the bow with. but her right was too tired at the moment to put up with the strain of fighting against the leather. Besides, she didn't want to actually harm Navi, so it was of no great consequence if some of her accuracy was sacrificed. The arrow's feathered shaft seemed to be eager to be received into her hand, and she almost thought she could hear it speaking directly into her brain: I know where to go, just set me free.  
  
Funny, but I feel more comfortable holding this arrow than I do my sword. She readied it against the pliant bow that still smelt sweet and new, putting it all to the fact that this bow was much lighter. She figured a single test shot couldn't hurt; she aimed blindly above and drew. She remembered seeing apples in this tree as she was absorbed into the bush; perhaps she could hit one.  
  
The bow twanged as she let the arrow fly, whistling as its sharp point ate up the atmosphere.  
  
There was a thud; the arrow had hit something. The bush's canopy was broken when a single, brilliant red apple plummeted down in the center of it, burst straight through the core with a miniscule arrow.  
  
Elaine's eyes were respectively wide. "That was cool," she admirably gusted at the fine spearing of the fruit. She picked it up and dusted it off, throwing its home-true skewer back at she who fired it and taking a small bite of the prize. "Just don't go William Tell and try that when it's on top of my head, OK?"  
  
Posie laughed, setting the leaves around her rustling. She clambered up to a natural sill formed in the bush's tangled branched; she was poised like a cat with an arrow ready.  
  
Further down the path, where Navi zipped, she took a few breaths to still herself as some object far away cast ripples into the atmosphere. The sound she could easily place, for it was as familiar to her as the feeling of sunshine on her shoulders. It was the soft twang of cured leather snapping back from a taut stance, and stiff feathers undulating in an unnatural wind. And the unmistakable thump of soft fruit flesh suddenly spliced.  
  
She set off speedily. Her body curved backward like the feminine figurehead of a great galleon, wings beating in a gossamer vapor behind her. Little drips and sparks of magic melted off the fay light she cast, leaving little will-o'-the-whisps to sparkle on the cracked trees.  
  
"Glowball, two 'o clock," hissed Posie from her watchpost.  
  
"What's that mean?" Elaine whispered back.  
  
"Don't know. Read it somewhere." For once the prodigy in her own right had no answer. "What I mean to say is, I see Navi coming."  
  
"I figured that," moaned Elaine at the candid. "How close is she?"  
  
"Close enough. I'll shoot her, and when she's distracted, we sprint. Alrighty?"  
  
Elaine nodded. Hunched over, she thought to take another mouth of the apple, coating her hand in sugars. She knew fairies could hear well and hoped the sounds of her chewing wouldn't call attention to them.  
  
Navi stopped, slightly befuddled, when she came to the heavily overgrown path Posie and Elaine had been traveling. Choppily-sheered scrubs and ferns ended, though the occasional half-limping branch still teetered on a few millimeters of stem. The forest was as clustered as grains of pepper in a shaker, so neither of the two girls could have made amazing progress. "Helloooo? Kiddies? Posie! Elaine! I know you're around here somewhere, come out, now!"  
  
Her reply was a quick brush with certain death. One of Posie's arrows, easily bigger than her entire body despite Posie's size, had just narrowly missed taking her legs by a hair's width. It lodged cozily in the un-ironed bark of an ash tree. Her eyes inspected it for a second, but only so long. The ringing sounds of an upset bush aroused her from behind.  
  
Many a forest is verdant, but as it has been iterated so many times before, this one was steel like a lode. A dashing deep green was hard to miss-better camouflaged was Elaine's bleached white dress. Navi began her flittering engines to attempt to reclaim the wandering wantons. As the two pulled over roots that blocked their path, the fairy began to reclaim space between her and the children.  
  
"Wait up! Stop it, you two! Your parents are gonna be furious if you keep running from them like this!"  
  
"Dangit, Glowy's right! What do we do Posie?" wondered a very windless Elaine. "I'm all up for pushing her buttons but, what about your dad? Yesterday morning?"  
  
Posie suddenly brought herself to a stop. Betraying her father was the last thing on her mind.  
  
She suddenly felt pain in her head and slumped to her knees.  
  
"Posie! Woah! It's alright! You don't have to get that emotional about it," but despite Elaine's friendly hand Posie was far beyond hearing. Her ears were already filled with an implacable roaring; one that didn't fit the description of any creature she was familiar with. It sounded like the temporal rush of a ghost as it crossed the barriers between fragile reality and world of spirit. She felt as if something were chewing on her stomach-in her mind, a picture haunted of a wizened demon with scabbed skin and shedding blue fur. But there were red eyes, cold unlike the fire they held, and sharp knives sprouting by the millions inside a cavernous jaw.  
  
As suddenly as it came, the gnawing sensation vanished like the conjuration it had been liked to. In a different section of the colorless woods, another member of the same family was helped to his feet by a Gerudo who, for all her jeers, looked worried. Both kin, when probed by their friends as to the cause of their distress, dismissed the case as frivolous. But a long-remembered dream surfaced inside Posie's skull, and a fatal face turned Link's nerves to stone. His eyes picked a spot about ten feet from the ground to probe, finding it more likely than not a hoggish-canine face would scowl at him from there. But all he found was a segment of skyline; a cloud with holes cut in it by two jogging purple shapes.  
  
The pause the two girls made for the ghastly premonition was significant enough for Navi to make it all the way to the place they knelt in. The fairy was prepared to read them the riot act-her features resembled a contorted expressionist painting, and two small vessels-one per eye-had leaked under pressure. "Alright! That's enough. You two are coming back with me whether you want to or not!"  
  
"Hey, cool it, Navi. Can't you see Posie's upset?"  
  
"I'm fine," Posie gulped, slowly taking in air to quell her racing heart. She teetered to her feet, threatening to fall like a stack of blocks built too high. "That was just-weird." She hoped she wouldn't be asked to explain what had just happened-she felt as if recalling that mug would put the electricity in her veins again. Her voice was scarred by fear, which seemed enough for Elaine. Even Navi looked empathetic.  
  
"Was it a premonition? Did you see something that might. mean anything to our quest?" Navi steepled her fingers, and Posie felt nauseated. Navi was in truth doubtful Posie had had anything resembling a premonition-inherited magic didn't mean all magic. Impa's Shadow magic was of the sort that would have future-dreams; Saria's Forest magic would heal body and soul and use nature's poisons against an enemy. But even a non- mage could occasionally pick up a flash of power, so the wedge of a chance was worth inquiring into.  
  
"I saw-a face. A face I saw a long time ago, and hoped never to see again. I really don't want to elaborate."  
  
Elaine scowled. Posie hoped she could link her vague words to the dream she'd once had, but realized with a sad twinge that she'd merely scored in Elaine's word-and-meaning war. The brunette girl muttered and fixed the sums in her tally.  
  
"What face?" Posie merely waved and told Navi to stop her prying.  
  
"Fine then," the fairy coughed, rebuked. "If you're going to stay clamed up, then both of you do me a favor and don't complain while we go back to camp."  
  
Elaine sighed. "Fair deal." Following Navi like obedient puppies, the girls and the fay leader began to browse a trail through the already-ripped landscape to get back to the "camp."  
  
Posie, watching the ground as she went, made a curious observation. Apparently the soil was gray here for a very good reason. She would kick it and not be assaulted by a turned-up, earthy smell, but something a bit like an old, dirty fireplace. Much of the ground around here was made up of actual ash. This made the lack of flourishing greenery seem dubious, as nutrient-rich soot seemed just the thing to prime a forest on. Occasionally a little odd pebble-like object would turn up, and she'd kick at it with another toe. These little specks bought her eagle-like gazes from Elaine, who was apparently a princess and the gravel flecks peas in disguise.  
  
"Stop kicking those at me."  
  
"Kicking what? It's just dirt."  
  
"Yeah, well, there's rocks in it!"  
  
"What rocks?" Posie asked, innocently and genuinely baffled. All she'd seen were the small chips of something like stone.  
  
"The big ones! I feel 'em hitting my back. You're gonna put bruises the size of craters on me!"  
  
Posie gazed down at the forest floor. She had no idea what Elaine was talking about, but she didn't want to argue. "Sorry."  
  
Elaine raised an eyebrow, but smiled to show she harbored no stiff emotions. Posie received the warmth of that smile with welcome.  
  
As they continued down along the rude trail, at a much slower pace than they had descended it, the dust at their feet began to stir again. But neither weary toe nor restless breeze was to blame this time-it was the small, wet jewels which fell from the heavens into it. The bulging rainclouds felt it the time to relieve themselves of their burden. It was starting as a merely light drizzle, but the Olympic bulk the thunderheads boasted of was testimony to the storm forthcoming.  
  
"Oh, well, this is-dandy," moaned Navi, who suddenly staggered as her back was caved in by a direct watery blow. It was the equivalent of a normal person getting ambushed with a water balloon. "Better hurry it up, then."  
  
Posie and Elaine cranked up their pace. They rather blindly ploughed onward with their eyes on Navi, brushing past trees and shrubs with varying degrees of damage inflicted on them. The two girls had never moved on very far in the first place, so they were quickly returned to the sight of their camp. For the most part, it was as undisturbed as they had left it.  
  
As Elaine diffidently shuffled her feet into their designated little clearing, she muttered something to Posie in a voice Navi was clearly meant to take hint from. "Why's that stupid Glowball always messing up our fun, huh?"  
  
"Because that's what a fairy does; cause trouble for its owner," Posie lamented, sitting down beside Link's backpack and taking a little bit of his draped cape as shelter from the rain. It was beginning to shower more steadily now. "Better ask-'Why does Navi always follow us?'"  
  
"To keep you out of trouble," she scolded them. "I think the two of you are seriously underestimating what I could do for you if you were to find yourselves in a dangerous situation!"  
  
"I know exactly what you could do. Yell a lot." Elaine was feeling particularly cynical after her plans were squashed, more so than usual.  
  
Posie watched a jet of red appear over the crest of one tree-top. She'd quickly picked up on what that sight meant. "Hey, look. Daddy and Miss Naomi are coming back."  
  
"Hey, yeah," noticed Elaine, who gave a yawn. She was thoroughly unsurprised. "Vegetation-I get a point for that even though you know what it means because I'm so glad I thought it up on the spur of the moment-must be a little thick."  
  
From off in a western-bound direction, a spray of blue crystal announce a magic presence.  
  
"Hmm?" The two children were aroused from their mild torpor by the unusual blasts that rallied above their heads. How was it the a spray of fire came from one direction and that of ice from another? Naomi couldn't be in two places at once, could she? There were a few who had that talent-but it was a power usually limited to those of Sheikah ancestry; Gerudo were much better at moving fast. But not that fast.  
  
"How's that?" Elaine craned her head to the sky as another rose jet appeared, and much closer. The scent of burning and bursting sap filled their noses. "Huh."  
  
Navi whipped around in the air. Almost immediately after the first flames had receded, something shimmered over their shoulders for an instant and shattered the sun's rays into rainbows on the ground.  
  
"Girls," she hissed in a low, panicked voice, "hide."  
  
The fear they heard in Navi's voice was as real as the earth they walked on. They would not argue with a tremolo that threatened to level the sea with its variety of waves. Their thoughts were alike and instantaneous-both of them dashed into the blue-and white feathered concoction of the Roc's Cape, with something much more serious to conceal themselves from. Navi dulled the light she usually carried and zipped beneath the cloak with them.  
  
They heard the splintering of many branches from inside their tight little cavern, the heat of their own quivering bodies rising the inside of it to a fever. A whistle of wind, tampered with via magic, carried aloft two very near and very creaked voices. One, the first they heard, put rage into their blood and made it pump with the fury of an all-consuming bonfire. The second sent chills up their spines, freezing all signals their nerves might want to send and enveloping them in a sort of passionately angry terror.  
  
"So did you find 'em, Kotake?"  
  
Posie felt all the saliva in her mouth turn to bitter acid when that name was mentioned. The fireproof incidents in the Fountain Cavern were playing at high-speed in her brain. Kotake. the ice half of the witch-sisters Twinrova.  
  
"Yeah, I got 'em, all right," Kotake icily replied. "Ain't so hard when you've got a calling spell on ya!" She cackled like the light of an ill- crossing star, and the three concealed souls could feel the frozen vibes her waving hand sent into the air.  
  
"Sh'roth's the only place left on the list of places to check, right?"  
  
"That and Ro." Check for what, exactly? Posie wanted to know. Though not out loud.  
  
"Yes. And our sacrifice will be.?"  
  
"No." That penetrating wave of coldness gripped its claws around their lungs, attempting to control all of their breathing for the worst. "Missing persons draw too much attention. That's why we're doing it the hard way this time. We still have to hoodwink Link and get that bloody Ocarina offa him, but it's better than alerting the Hylean public ahead of time."  
  
"Kotake, what'll we do if we can't trap him while he's all alone like this.?"  
  
The hag breathed with a rattle. "Don't worry. Remember, as long as we have all the ashes in our possession."  
  
"Of course." There was the sound of sickly, wrinkled skin rubbing together. "Any time, any time! The only thing we have to do is stay outta the King's sight. Blood will flow freely again soon enough, sister!"  
  
Their barking laughs sounded again in ghostly unison. "Now, let's get outta here. I don't like rain. It makes my joints ache," sighed Kotake in a way that could almost draw pity. "Sh'roth, the Shadow Haven? Make way for Twinrova!"  
  
"Right! Perhaps we'll have some fun with the pathetic Sheikah remnants while we're there. I know what I said earlier about Impa and Zelda being the only ones left of their race, but I guess I forgot about those at the Shadow Haven." She paused for facetious effect. Then picked up: ".All 12 of them!"  
  
Somehow managing never to notice a backpack and a Roc's Cape in the clearing, not to mention two very frightened girls and a fairy, Koume and Kotake flew off like two corks of maleficent bottles of champagne. Hisses and clicks followed in their wake-from the droplets of rain, either freezing as hail and rattling through tree branches, or as steam, sizzling back up into the clouds.  
  
Slowly, Elaine was first to emerge, watching the tails of their brooms soar away. The words came pouring from her mouth in a gibbering stream. "Ash. Shadow Haven. Sacrifice. Ocarina. Your dad. What's going on." She was so lost in her maelstrom of through she didn't even bother to phrase the last statement she made as a question.  
  
"I. I'm really not sure," Navi gulped, riding out on top of Posie's head. "I. I have a theory but. it's totally wild. Posie, you really don't suppose. that they could be trying. to."  
  
Posie shook her head, sending Navi airborne again. "I'm not even sure what you're talking about. I remember a little about Twinrova from what Daddy told me. but. I never heard a lot."  
  
"Never mind. I. I'd just be frightening you, if I told you. Besides, even if it was true. There's nothing that you could do. It would be."-She motioned as if she were hiking up her pants. Even though she didn't have any. "-It would be strictly your mother and father's business."  
  
"C'mon, Navi, tell us," whined Elaine. "Even if it's terrifying, I'm curious. In a morbid kinda way."  
  
Navi screwed up her face, and looked like she'd lost her heartbeat somewhere in her throat by the sweat streaming down from her forehead. "Well. it's just that. that I think. I think."  
  
"What?"  
  
"That I think-your parents are returning," she quickly improvised. With a sweeping hand gesture normally used to introduce celebrities in public, Navi made clear where Link and Naomi battled their way back to the clearing through the suppressing undergrowth. 


	13. Ancient Waters

((CAN: Those visiting my site, Katen Giri no Boukendan() will need to pay very close attention to the start of the chapter here. It's essential to the plot anyway for everyone else, but the Boukendan-ers will pick up some needed hints. And for everyone, whether they know my site or not-yep, I *am* insinuating what you think I am, about Impa. Not about the Queen of Hyrule stuff, that's been a theory of mine for a long time, but the OTHER thing. Like I said, Sheikah age pretty slowly. At least, in my world they do. Ever slower than Gerudo! And going with my theory, the King is still technically her husband, so yes. Zelda is going to have a little sister. O.o If this is getting too weird for you, go ahead, stop reading now. I don't blame you. My world is inherently twisted. Actually, Keena ('tis Impa's other daughter's name) has a lot to do with the actual plot behind the greater whole of the body of stuff this fic is part of. If you go to said above site, there's a nice little blurb I wrote where you actually meet Keena, who's very peculiar in her own right. OK, end self plug and explanations. now.))  
  
((Also, pardon me for using the phrase "deep purple." I was listening to Smoke On The Water at the time and it subconsciously popped up.))  
  
Spinning Slash, Chapter 13: Ancient Waters  
  
Three vibrant strips of brilliant green light scythed through the eternal, undulating blueness inside the Temple of Light in the Sacred Realm.  
  
"Whatever this is about, Rauru, it better be good-I was right in the middle of cooking something, you know."  
  
The somewhat tall, balding man dressed in the plump-collared habit simply shrugged his shoulders; they were nearly hidden beneath the fat roll all stitched will yellow swirls. "I'm afraid I didn't call this meeting, Saria," he sighed, and little silvery curls danced up beneath his mustache. In what was called The Golden Land, everything seemed to shine, even the very air itself.  
  
"I would very much like to know who did, then," Darunia roughly enquired. His hands were knit in front of his chest, and every little tap of his boulder-sized foot caused the slight teetering of the platform they rested upon.  
  
"That would have been Impa," he replied, with a little cough to clear his unshaved old voice. "Don't ask me what she wants, she's been acting rather funny lately anyway."  
  
"We've all been on an edge recently," Ruto's pearly ichtyian voice chimed in. The scales along much of her face and running down the sides of her arms were pushed up in the wrong direction, giving her a fuzzy look in those areas. "What with Twinrova puttering about all over the place, no matter what they say! My people only managed to do off with everything they've done to us as of earlier today."  
  
"They've been vying for a hold on my forests for a long time, as they control much of the life-force in Hyrule," Saria offered, chin down to her collarbone. "I heard something about the Gorons from Link, but Zora's Domain I know nothing about."  
  
Nabooru, flecks of orange flying off her as she whipped her long red ponytail around, gave a disdainful sideways glance. "Puh! They may be the matrons of my society, but they're the last thing I'd need fouling up life right now. The entire Fortress is up in a big hullabaloo after some escape that went up last night."  
  
Saria clicked her tongue. "My husband was behind that one. So were my daughter and her friend. Sorry."  
  
Nabooru clutched her thin shoulders with long red nails, lifting up both her legs and quite comfortably sitting cross-legged in the middle of the air. "Well, next time you see him, give him my thanks," she sarcastically jibed. "He made my life a living heck for a day."  
  
A sluice of deep purple bars rained down, centered above the purple dais where the Seal of Shadow's engraving sat. Reassembling themselves into a sensible pattern, they made the form of an agile woman who could have either looked a very mature 15-year-old or a very youthful 50-year-old one. It happened to be the latter. The white hair in her tight bun was a trait of her kind, as were the pale skin and eyes that flamed red in darkness. The color that accompanied her fall only had to deepen slightly when it put together the dark black suit she was wearing.  
  
"Ah, the woman of the hour," remarked Ruto, now trying to smooth down her face so it didn't look like she needed a shave. "Impa. You'd better have a good reason for calling us up here, you know."  
  
"Sorry." She had the voice of a combination lock, secure with the subtlest of clicks pulsing beneath it. "It's just that I felt-"  
  
Ten black pricks of pupils were all focused squarely on her, it was true, but it wasn't her voice that captured them. All the eyes were shot down almost two feet from beneath her chin.  
  
"Impa, you're-" Rauru amazedly began, though a swift hand chop sliced off his statement there. "Hey, Sheikah age, bub, divide in half to make the Hylean equivalent, that makes me twenty-five," she expediently rectified him.  
  
"Well, I know, but the King-well, he's getting on in years, you know, I didn't think he would-unless it's not him," Rauru breathed heavily. "And that would have made you ten at the time you took your disguise, so it's not a failsafe system, that divide-in-half job."  
  
"Yeah, well, we initially develop at the same rate," she rebuked. "Besides, this isn't about the fact that I was really the Queen and I had to fake my own death," she moaned. "What I was going to say is that-"  
  
"But will they know?" Rauru would not abandon the topic he'd latched on to, that being whatever Impa was. "That they're really a royal? I mean, it would make sense."  
  
"Drop it," Nabooru advised, and they all nodded along with her good advice. Pleased with herself, Nabooru reclined, the barest outlines of a silvery declivity beneath her back. "We can all see what's up, Rauru, since we are all Sages and we do have the mage-sight," she scolded him. "And pretty soon everyone else will know, 'cuz it's not like something you can just hide forever," she yawned. "Unless you wear loose clothing. And even that doesn't work, because people will notice when suddenly, you've got a-"  
  
"Will someone let me speak?" Impa was sharp, and she thought she could hear a few coughs masking a dark comment or two. She thought it came from Rauru's direction, thought it was unlike him to pull a masked insult, let alone an insult at all. Met with silence, she gave an affirmative foot stamp. "Right. As I was saying. I've heard plenty of reports of Twinrova popping up everywhere. Domain, Goron City, and recently-from my telepathic tile-Shadow Haven, the last refuge of my people. Now, all these reports have been odd because."  
  
"-Because Twinrova hasn't actually done anything," Darunia vouched. "Just flown about and frightened the willies out of a couple people. Not like them at all, really."  
  
"The Zora have good reason to infer it was them that set the Phantom on us," Ruto chirped, the gills on her neck ruffling up. "That certainly qualifies as 'something' in my book!"  
  
"But you don't know that. Past experience makes us suspicious, but we haven't found any credible evidence to prove they're up to something."  
  
"All these facts are old hash, Impa, why did you bother calling us here?" Rauru was almost motionless, as per usual, but his jaded old eyes had an indigence stewing behind them. "Unless you've noticed something that should concern us."  
  
"Something extremely unsettling, Rauru," she sighed, and flexed her long, nimble fingers. "The call I got from Haven was on spot-of-the-minute; a live report." She snapped her fingers. "Twinrova was trying to bargain their way in."  
  
"Same thing happened to us," groaned Darunia, who kept crossing and un-crossing his arms in a nervous and impatient fidget. "What's the big deal?"  
  
Impa glared at him. "Do you know what lies in Haven?"  
  
"Well, yes, or course, we all do," said Saria with boredom. "Most people don't, but, we're privileged that way, aren't we? Aside from some of the last Sheikah dwellings, it's where the Book of Dusk rests."  
  
The Book of Dusk was a spellbook of an ancient writ, penned by the Sage's Apprentices. Mudora, Byrna, and Somaria, three students to the first seven Sages of old, had put together two master grimores of spells. The Book of Dawn was the first, whose now-crippled pages listed the most powerful in chants to cover all a person could worry about in life. The Book of Dusk was much the same, only it held the secrets to command over death. Experimenting with those necromancies, it was believed that the Apprentices had accidentally created the ReDead and Gibdo that stalked darker corridors. As with any object possessed of power that great, or the potential thereof, it was no surprise Impa was worried about Twinrova being near to it.  
  
"Well, the Book of Dusk. you can bring people back with that book, you know. Back from the dead. Of course, you'll probably end up nearly killing yourself in the process, as it takes an un-Goddessly amount of power to fuel those kinds of spells, but it can be done. I mean, what could Twinrova do with a book like that.?"  
  
Saria knew what her fellow Sage was insinuating, and she knew full well her stance on it even before Impa had clarified her topic. "They wouldn't dare. They know what Link'd do to them if they did! Besides, there's us. My power fairly doubled six years ago when I got involved in that little tangle, and Rauru has his magic that could very easily smite them upside the head, and Goddesses know we each have something we can do."  
  
"But we can't deny there's a possibility that they could!"  
  
"I for one think you're overexaggerating, Impa," breathed Nabooru, who did a little backflip in mid-air and smoothly fell back into her floating cushion. "Not like you'd be to blame if you were-I know being in your situation makes me catty."  
  
"Not that again," snorted Saria. "Didn't you say we should forget it."  
  
"And by bringing up that she said to forget it you're remembering it again," snarled Impa, clearly touchy about whatever it was that was up with her. "Totally off topic. Heading back towards the path, I don't think I'm overexaggerating. There's a definite possibility that they're trying to do what I think they're trying to do, and Hyrule is in serious trouble."  
  
Nabooru cackled in such a fashion that one might think Impa had just made a hilariously amusing joke. "Trouble? Pah! Link's more than a match for that overgrown pig, even if he is coming back! How many times does the poor guy have to prove it to ya?" She kicked one leg up to the side and did a sort of cartwheel, gazing around at the Chamber of Sages upside-down. The action was so childlike and ridiculous it might come off as mocking.  
  
"He kills," stammered Impa, putting her hand to her heart. "He kills for the warmth of blood spilling over his fingers! He kills to view his reflection in a glistening stream of red! He kills just so he can feast upon the hearts of his victims and gnaw their bones."  
  
Nabooru righted herself, delicately alighting on the floor one more. "Goddesses, you Sheikah are so melodramatic," she lamented, clicking her tongue as if she woken up with a bitter flavor in her mouth. "You start speaking poetry every time you meet up with something you don't like. Ever consider writing a novel?"  
  
"Nabooru, if he's coming back," Impa pleaded. "If! Even I know it may not happen. But it could. It's possible. It's probable! If Twinrova really are planning on restoring Ganon, then we must do something to prepare." Her knees were bent; she wanted to get down on them, and she would genuflect to make her plans into actions. "Not much! Put extra seals on the Triforce. Find any powerful artifacts-like the Wind Waker, Ether, Quake and Bombos, anything he could possibly use-and seal them away, too. Put extra guards on everything. And make sure that you yourselves are in apt condition to fight if he comes. Do whatever it takes. Train. Saria, you, make potions. Darunia, help release the pressure in Death Mountain so that he won't be able to coax it into eruption. Ruto, find safe places for all the Zora! I don't think he'll strike about against his former people, but be careful, Nabooru. And, Rauru, I think you should do what you already do best-pray. If we ever needed the Goddesses, it's now."  
  
"You're going to become highly unpopular for a while if this turns out to be a false alarm," scoffed Ruto, who wasn't fancying the prospect of herding all the Zoras into hiding. True, they had a sanctuary built for emergencies, but it was in a rather dank and ugly underwater cave that no one would like to hide in for long. "I presume your yourself are planning on ferreting all the Kakarikans off somewhere while we wait out this little spell?"  
  
"No, but I am placing them on alert," nodded Impa, who stepped off her seal and arched toward the center dais. "As for me." She placed the black tip of one thin foot inside the center engraving, and jumped to bring her entire body into the circle. "I am going Tima M?ditori for a week or so, however long it takes. So, don't go looking for me."  
  
"Tima M?d. Impa, you can't! We're going to need you!" Rauru stammered. "Besides, what good is it to us if you come back a year older than you started?"  
  
"It'll be all the better for me, Rauru," she replied loftily, hand perched above her heart. "Any way you look at it, I've gone and made myself vulnerable for quite some time. Better a week than seemingly endless months, right?"  
  
The unconvinced Sage inquisitively raised and eyebrow, seeming to swivel on a lazy Suzan built underneath his vestments. "But if you are right, and he returns. This week. What'll we do without the full circle?"  
  
"Oh, you can manage," she grinned, managing to pull off a little wink. "There's always Zelda. Six out of seven works nine out of ten times. Doesn't it?"  
  
Rauru mumbled, "Your ratios do nothing for me." A few clicks signaled his soft-shod foot rapping up and down on the Sages' charmed marble pillar.  
  
"Could we call the dismissal of the meeting now?" asked Saria, looking anxious and with her mind likely on something that may or may not have been burning at the moment. She twiddled her fingers. "I was kind of busy when I got called here."  
  
Impa sveltely pranced back to her circle, seeming to glide across ice that formed beneath her as she walked. For her bleeding speech, she gave a surprisingly bubbly grin at the request made. "I suppose," she chuckled, her red eyes rippling like a lava flow against the mostly stilly blue atmosphere. "But before I go. I really must make this clear to you all. Now I know, at last count, all of us here have at least one child."  
  
Saria nodded, thinking of Posie, currently an absentee from her life, and suddenly seeing flashes in her head of her sister-in-law Aryll's adopted son Click. "Yes. Posie, Link, Tony and Bruno, Zelda, all of Nabooru's daughters, and Ralloy. What about them, Impa? Aside from that fact their ranks will shortly be. aherm. joined."  
  
"Warn them," Impa clenched a fistful of air. "If-if we are dealing with the return of Ganon, they are prime targets and in great danger. We as Sages are too pure for his claws to touch, but they are easy targets for him and removing them would eliminate future threats for him. Rauru, your son Ralloy-"-she nodded to him-"-he's a grown man and a warrior; I think he is well to defend himself. Zelda is defended as well, for she holds the Spirit of the Seventh Sage. And Posie has her wonderful father. But this does not mean they are free and clear! Be especially careful. I know I'll be watching closely over my other. There now," and she rubbed her hands together to try and give a sense of finality to it all, "I've finished my ranting. Any more parting words?"  
  
"Erherm," Rauru cleared his voice. In a voice so sheepish a ram's bleat could be underlying it, he muttered, "And congratulations, I guess. On. you know. and all."  
  
Face falling soft, she happily sighed: "Thanks."  
  
*****************************  
  
"I don't want to hear it. Don't-want-to-hear-it. You understand me?"  
  
"We understand ya alright, but that doesn't mean we're gonna accept it. You might as well say it, Mr. B. We are-"  
  
"Don't, Elaine," Link hurriedly scolded. His nose was buried between a browned crease, a parchment valley appropriately placed in the rift between Ipanajou and Death Mountain. "We're gonna get out of this. I swear it!"  
  
"Daddy, you don't have to act like you know what you're doing," sighed Posie fitfully, tearing cockleburs out of her hair. "'Cuz you sure don't."  
  
"Posie, love, I do know what I'm doing. I have a handle on this situation. Just gimmie some slack, kid!"  
  
"He's hopelessly obstinate; give it up, Posie," Naomi tried to caution her. Obstinate: A good, strong word that described Link perfectly. She was glad she was in the company of two kids who understood what it meant. She had had to ask Posie earlier why she had the vocabulary of a 37- year-old-man, and she couldn't help but giggle a bit when Posie had rather wittily answered that it was because her favorite book was written by one. Naomi remembered a similar story about one of her favorite Outside authors- at the age of three, that author had found a biology textbook for high- schoolers. In kindergarten, her favorite words had been "abstract" and "protozoa."  
  
"That or he thinks if he ignores our problem, it'll go away," moaned Posie, who batted her eyes and shook the rain vigorously from her head. "I guess he thinks we'll un-lose ourselves."  
  
"Ha! Un-lose," grimly gaffed Naomi. "Good one. Yeah," and she lackadaisically blew at her temple hair. It didn't budge an inch; it was too sodden with rain. "It's getting as muddy here as it was in the Fountain Cave."  
  
"Muck muddy grime gross sludge slop," rattled Elaine from a vacant nowhere in the middle of her brain. "That's all it's been. Why did I feel excited about coming on this trip? It's been walk, walk, walk, misadventure, walk, walk, nearly get boiled, walk, walk, Gerudos, runrunrun walk walk walk fall into a stream, float, get picked up and dumped at Zora's, walk, walk, wade, wade, wade, Freezair, wade, wade, walk, walk, dodge, walk, run, move in circles, walk, walk, walk."  
  
"That's funny, I could swear you were having fun earlier," Naomi sighed with sarcasm. "Oh well. Not like I haven't had mixed feelings about anything before."  
  
"Well, the life of a hero isn't all glitz and glamour," Link mumbled over his shoulder. Walking with his neck contorted and his eyes on his companions, he resembled a strange owl from some twisted forest. "It's a lot of muck, mud, and grime. And blood. Seriously, someone should shoot those bards for making up glamorous ballads like they do."  
  
Posie nodded, nostrils choked with the memory of her burst, slain Dodongo. Elaine took a small gulp as well, eyes full of saline remembering their Lizafos. Naomi looked sideways at them, feeling the sadness their little hearts sent out and sympathizing. The incident in the desert had been quite a scrap, but she hadn't killed then. When they'd come for her at Randy's house, then she'd killed. Only four members of the dozen-strong force were healthy enough to drag her back, and of the other eight, three had tasted their final battle.  
  
Link turned away, satisfied that they'd not complain so steeply now. "War is worse, though. So much worse. I was born during the Great War. it took my father, my mother, all of my grandparents except my mother's mother, and three of her siblings. Even my father, who was a soldier, was murdered before he saw a day of battle. Killed by jealousy and hate. Never become a general, Posie. be a warrior, a good warrior, but don't be a general."  
  
Posie didn't need to be told to stay away from that profession. Link complained about Igre Rendelholfe on a daily basis. From what she'd heard, he was best summed up as a right bastard. Though she'd never dare use such terminology out loud.  
  
Droopy Navi had her soaked wings plastered to her back and wrapped around her shoulders, her glow turned down several grades and her entire person looking like something to be thrown out with the rest of the trash. "I'm not having fun," she said blatantly; that was already obvious. "I'm wet, I'm cold, and I'm bored. I need a nice warm fire and a cozy blanket. Let's see, what else can I whine about? That fact that we don't know where we're going, except that we should be headed in the general direction of a lake?"  
  
A large white streak, illustrated like a great vein in the sky's arm, whipped across the sky. A rumble taunted it less than a second later.  
  
".Not to mention there's a chance we'll get electrocuted?"  
  
"Hey, I played dodgeball, volleyball, basketball and Four Square in the rain. You can at least walk, no, ride on my shoulder through it."  
  
"I'm just sick and tired of water in general," sniffed Elaine, unintentionally punctuating herself with a sneeze. "The Tragic Tale of Posie Blade and Elaine Parkerstine needs a new plot device."  
  
On more than one occasion in their lives, the four could have sworn that Nature had a voice. A brilliant flash brought its less-than-silent companion, who seemed to agree with a resounding "Yes."  
  
"No more falling into pits. No more running into stuff. I don't want to meet anyone else. Is adventure always this repetitive, Daddy?"  
  
Link rotated the map he held; perhaps he had been reading it upside- down. It didn't help. "Sometimes, kid, sometimes."  
  
"I agree on the pits part," sighed Naomi, who held her hand out and gagged as if to push away some offensive offering. "No more Swiss cheese. There's still plot holes that need patching for me, never mind real, physical, tangible ones in the ground!"  
  
Posie shook her head, looking back and up at Naomi. "Holes can't be tangible," she corrected. "The dirt on the sides of the hole can, but not the hole itself."  
  
"Thank you, Einstein," thanked Naomi sarcastically. "I'll remember next time that you're such a literalist. Never let me use an old adage around you, no siree!"  
  
Posie let her back face Naomi again, but she made obvious the intelligent finger she held high as she possibly could into the air. "She who repeatedly quotes others says nothing intelligent enough to quote herself," she tailored from a longer expression she had once heard.  
  
"Deep," pondered Elaine, looking skyward and half-expecting the Muse herself to sweep down from it at that profound statement. "Who said that? Someone like Dickinson or Shakespeare, or all those other old stuffy authors sophisticated-looking people like to pretend they read?"  
  
"Actually, I just made it up on the spur of the moment."  
  
Elaine giggled. "Well, I s'ppose it would be defeating its own purpose if you didn't, then?"  
  
There was another responsive burst of laughter from her smaller friend up in front of her.  
  
"Ok. I think I've found the path that will put us back on the trail," Link interrupted. "It's simple. About a thirty-minute hike. Not long. We've survived for the past few wandering without much of a point, I think we can go for a half-hour more."  
  
"It has to be at least 15 by now," groaned Naomi, whose forest- blocked vision left her without a sun to judge by. But her gut instincts were telling. "We stopped to eat at about noon. I think it's definitely been around three hours!"  
  
There was a cough marked with Navi's signature fairy buzz. "Care for some bad news, Naomi?"  
  
"Sure, sure." After all, she thought, it couldn't be worse. It was already raining.  
  
"It's only been a little under one. Hour, I mean."  
  
The Gerudo shrieked with rage and more than a little disgust. She was certainly intelligent enough alone, and she didn't need to pretend to have read Shakespeare. She had. Romeo seemed like a Sage at the time, though Sage of What, she didn't know-"Sad hours seem long." Well, if sad hours were long, lost ones were positively protracted. She was positive that any nonexistent watches she might have owned would have turtle-bred second hands that lumbered on in a slow-and-steady that wouldn't win any races. She mumbled into her hands, feeling like a doll made out of lead-"Goddesses help me."  
  
"Well then, start praying," sighed Link, who was developing a small fidget-he'd unroll the map, stare at it, and then roll it up again, as if it would shift each time he turned away and magically reform the world with it to bring them the correct path. "We need all the help we can get."  
  
Naomi threw her arms up the air. They fell with all the grace of a plummeting elephant. "Great. So you're admitting we're lost."  
  
"I would prefer we used the phrase. unsure of our current coordinates." His little twitch went off again. Unroll, glance, roll. "Or. currently unaware of our longitude and latitude. Or. locationally challenged. Or."  
  
"Lost," groaned Posie, Elaine, Naomi and Navi all at once.  
  
Seeing Naomi's lip mold into a sneer, he quickly gave in. "Ok, lost works."  
  
***********************  
  
Modern technology is something we often take for granted. Our cars, air conditioners, television sets and radios-nearly all of us alive today were born with the comfort of knowing these things would always be here for us, always there to lay back upon when the world turns its rough shoulder to us. And yet these machines that give us our cushioned existence here in the Outside are diseased pathogens upon the earth, coughing up rude toxins that give our fragile sphere many dire cracks. And we dare sit and wonder how it all happens.  
  
No Outsider could have ever survived beholding the bottom of Lake Lolita, wild purity set in the crystal-fine waters of near-machine-free Hyrule. No Zora fins would dare stir up its silts as they did then-Lolita is rich in pearls, for every grain of sand is round as a tiny ball and reflects the sun like so much gold dust coating the lake's blue floor. Silver clouds tainted yellow-green by a combination of water filter and sunlight laughed up in the azure depths, as a foot of mottled gray-green dug into the floor with its claws to propel itself onward toward the King of Lolita's woven-seaweed-and-driftwood throne, set among his abalone palace.  
  
"Your Majesty," the servant panted, letting the bubble-rich water saturate his bat wing gills. As a fish did, his lips were large and brilliant red-but unlike fish, he bore two curved sets of scythed teeth, and his jaws were fully articulate in the speech of man. "Visitors."  
  
Many before had likened the less couth, slightly devolved Zora kind to the oversized spawn of frogs and sharks. But the King of their sort seemed to have a bit more turtle in him than any other reptile or amphibian. Unlike the King of the more respected and humanoid blue Zoras, he wore no fancy ornaments and hefted no staff. He was simply an immense creature-large enough that, should one of his servants displease him, he needn't send them to be beheaded, he could simply swallow them in one gulp. But he wouldn't think of such a thing. He may have been slightly barbaric, but he was no cannibal.  
  
"Well, Scout, send them in! Send them in, boy, don't stand there!"  
  
"My lord," and the Zora gave a bow that was deep beyond those to which the lake submerged. "We do not have visitors in our immediate lake, not yet. I merely said, we have them, as in, they are nearing our lake and may enter it."  
  
"Ah." This King laid back, his throne creaking beneath him. He felt very rich at the moment-and he liked to feel rich. It made him feel so much more than merely King of the Lake, but as if he were King of the Sea. "Tell me, scout. Who discovered this? Was it you?"  
  
"'Twas indeed, milord, said in all humbleness, of course," he genuflected on his monarch.  
  
"What did these visitors look like? Did you get a good look at them?"  
  
"Two of them, milord," nodded the servant, careful to keep his voice respectfully soft despite his eagerness to share. "The other two were very small."  
  
"Tell me what you have found," the King sternly, but not harshly, commanded.  
  
"Well," the servile Zora began, biting his large lower lip with many teeth in order to find the proper description to convey his sights. "One of them, travelling behind. She was a Gerudo-long red hair; dingy and patched purple clothes; very strange markings on her face." Few bubbles flew from his mouth as he talked. Good. It was considered very crass indeed to speak and make many bubbles, much like a human spitting as they talked.  
  
"Gerudo," he snarled, raking a few new lines into the already weathered surface of his armrests. "Foul creature, how did she enter our woods? She shouldn't be here."  
  
"She was with the other, milord," the insignificant Zora scout desperately tried to reclaim the King's good humor. "Sort of middle-sized fellow; mildly lanky. sharp features. Dressed in a green tunic, white leggings and undershirt. blonde hair that shone from a mile away, milord." The servant bowed repeatedly. "And. a most peculiar long hat that resembled a sock. Also green. If you please, milord."  
  
The King of the Lolita Zoras put a spiny, webbed hand to his large red lips, letting a few deep breaths run over his many-ribbed gills and pump oxygen to his brain for thought. "Hmmm. sounds familiar, that fellow does. I seem to recall. my, it must have been at least ten years ago! A young chap, dressed almost just like that with the features you described. why, he showed up at the lake here, apparently with his heart set on defeating Agahime! Whoever that was," he tutted to himself. "Well, I felt sorry for the lad and sold him a pair of our best flippers at a steal, anyway. Wasn't much of a swimmer, he wasn't."  
  
"It couldn't possibly be the same person," the reporter replied. "He must be a grown man right now; why would he dress the same way now as he did when he was a teenager? Preteen, if he was that much of a 'young chap?'"  
  
"There are some with stubborn tastes," proudly stated the King, licking his lips and thinking of the excellent lunch he'd just been served.  
  
A sudden brisk stroke of brilliance fell through his mind. Calmly, almost casually now, he seemed to have entered a windfall of memory. "Say, I think I remember that lad's name! Something beginning with the letter L. Leo? Liam? Logan? No, it was something uncommon. ah, Link! That was it. Link. Does that name ring bells with anyone here?" He surveyed his court, full of guards, mages, and pages running back and forth on errands.  
  
A few faces twirled back and forth under the silver surveillance of a few rays of sun sinking in from between the cracks in the roof. Some of them had never heard the name before in their lives-unless they were speaking about chains or golf courses-while a few were vaguely familiar with the Hero and his exploits. One guard swallowed thickly while an advisor's eyes roved around and around, swiveling like billiard balls in their sockets. Wild-Zora eyes are highly mobile, and the metaphorical eight ball was sunk in the corner pocket every time those eyes did another rotation.  
  
The few seconds of silence the King was presented with well his hat hitting the floor, and no one was so far rushing to pick it up with an eager answer. "Anyone?" he tentatively inquired.  
  
"I-know a little about the man," one mage prompted himself into reply, hot steam and vapor exhaled with his breath from the eternal stream of fireballs he coughed up. "He's a sort of idol among the Hyleans-a hero, a saint, whatever you wish to call him. He has brought down numerous great fiends in his short time-Ganon, Agahime, the Far Nightmares, Vaati, Veran the Sorceress, General Onox. oh, I'm fairly sure there are others, but their names escape me at the present point. The chap's a fairly large name, as it goes. I couldn't tell you the names of those with him, however."  
  
The Wild-Zora King lifted himself by the fins to settle himself more properly, letting himself be dipped into irony as if he'd been caught, fried, and served with tartar sauce. "So, that little wench from all those years ago pulled through. good on you, boy, good on you. Now, I won't say no to a little evil-adds some spice to life once in a while-but Hyrule's a better place without the likes of some of them. I do know Ganon. How long are they in coming, do you think?"  
  
The scout looked up at his curious monarch and did a few quick calculations in his head to answer this next question. "Oh, if they continue along the path they are going-two days, milord."  
  
The Wild-Zora king sighed, taking a deep breath and then blowing a few exquisite silver orbs into the water. "Are they trying to come this way? Seemingly? Knowedly? Do we have any assurance?"  
  
"Most definitely, milord," the scout piped up. "They had Marks. Resonating on their chests, brightly to our eyes. They must have received them as a gift from one of the royal Zoras."  
  
"Very well." The King waved a little banishing backside fin, shooing off the scout. "Now, please, go show our guests the. express route."  
  
********************  
  
It seemed Link's declivity toward the naïve was being ground down to a flat plain as of late. Finally admitting they were lost? Naomi was sure he could say no truer words. Until now. Now, in one simple guttural outburst, he made one singular statement that no person in that situation could have possibly disagreed with. "Arrrrrrrgggg!"  
  
They seemed to have been ambushed, though their would-be abductor or attacker had very bad aim. Perhaps he'd been going for the element of surprise, shocking them all into a paralyzed terror so that he could collect them like mushrooms or ravage them as a lioness ravages her latest catch. He certainly hadn't made a superior shot. He landed about a yard away from Link's feet, coercing a startled yelp from him and a few muffled squeaks of alarm from Posie and Elaine. His skin was a scaly and wet blue- green, deep in tone upon his head and lighter in color down his body. A few, sparse quills rose from his arms and back, a thick green web stretched tight between them. His lips were of a fungal red that were nevertheless highly unattractive, dotted to the far left and right by well-shown glistening teeth.  
  
His homely face jerked upward from where it lay on the ground, quickly taking in its worm's-eye view of Link's slack-jawed stunned expression and more face-on one of the clearly baffled Posie. Moving his rubber lips in a slow, drawled pace that make soft smacking sounds out of water, he mouthed-"Good, I've found you."  
  
"Good? Does this mean to infer you were looking for us?!" Naomi blared, mildly outraged. Nearly("Nearly" in her books being rather loosely defined) getting knocked over by a kipper-in-the-raw did not count as good. ("Good" in her books being anything that did not seek to interrupt her usual, predetermined routine.)  
  
"Aye, milord sent me out here for you."  
  
Elaine suddenly pointed, jabbing her finger as if she held a knife every time she stressed even a single syllable. "Wait! You're one of those- errm, wild Zoras, aren't you? Yeah. is your master the King of Lake Lolita?"  
  
The young scout got to his feet, only to fall in a genuflect again at the mention of his commander's name. "Yes, he is. The honorable, King of the Sea."  
  
"Is he still callin' himself that?" snorted Link, having memories all too clear of his exploits with the fishy emperor. Well, he thought to himself, it wasn't his fault he wasn't very good at swimming, was it? He wasn't then, anyway. Link found it exceedingly humorous that his friend Mr. M had left out, from the "game" that was supposed to prequel all others, his need to beg the Royal Zora King of a pair of flippers. And then buying some off that overgrown excuse for a salmon. "Well, does he still remember good ol' Link?"  
  
"He. needed to be reminded," the scout slyly looked to the side. He was ashamed of his lord's lack of long-term memory. "But yes, for the most part. he did remember. He wished me to bring you to the lake."  
  
Link scratched his head, baffled that someone he had only met briefly a decade before would so willingly send him a chauffeur. Perhaps his now- escalated reputation had something to do with it, though he couldn't see a sociophobic King of feral Zoras keeping up much with current events. "Well, that's, uh, nice of him. What's your name, anyway?"  
  
"Kenta, sir-not a very royal one, but it will do?" His eyes seemed to plead sympathy for a lack of a better titled while he eased up from his bow.  
  
"Name's just a bunch of letters thrown together in a pretty pattern. 'Course it'll do!" Posie gave a rather large thumbs-up for such a small person. "I'm Posie, by the way, and this is my friend Elaine, my daddy-but you knew him-and Miss Naomi."  
  
"Um-" Link re-adjusted his hat. "I-didn't ask for an introduction, but that was nice of you anyway, Posie," he shrugged.  
  
A little flipping ball of light rushed forth from Link's hat like an eruption, but stopping as if held by leather straps a few inches from the Zora's amphibious face. "And I would be Navi, but-"-sighing, she turned her back-"-not like anyone ever gives a care about the fairy."  
  
"No-you are all most welcome in His Majesty's palace," Kenta said, now at his full posture. He was about four feet in height, near chest level to Link. "It's only a short hike from here."  
  
Link held the much-fingered piece of parchment up to the little light coming in from the tree's canopies, scanning the dotted lines and jaggedly- inked mountains. "Yeah, but this map says-"  
  
"Forget the map, Linky-boy," Naomi sliced.  
  
Kenta licked his lips. "She speaks truly. A map does not show all paths to be taken."  
  
Eager to cut their walking half, the four humans and lone fairly gratefully followed.  
  
They began their condensed trek to Lake Lolita through a sudden slice in the woods, pointed out by their Wild-Zora leader some yards behind and carefully concealed beneath the bows of a Virentan Tanglewillow, a rare plant found mostly in the marsh-lands of Viren whose leaves were covered in a sticky secreting and its twigs in thorns that helped it live up to its name. Before the death of magic, its ancestors were supposed to have lived in southern Africa where they ate the humans who became trapped in their limbs, but most found the entire concept silly. This tree had blunt thorns and the rain had washed its leaves slick and clean, making for an easy trail. They slipped on past as easily as Kenta, whose hard and well-oiled scales threw back foliage and sluiced past mud.  
  
Despite the tangling, packing roots of the trees, said mud was abundant as the rain washed bare the knots digging deep into the earth from the towering trunks. Thankfully, however, there was no need to get down on hands and knees and wade through it, as there had been in the Fountain Cavern. Kenta chose a path that leapt lithely around any big puddles of the stuff, even though the ground was certainly very wet. Link had to wonder if they were heading toward Lake Lolita or Swamp Lolita-the spongy forest floor here not only had a peculiar, curly texture, but it smelt distinctively of peat moss. Naomi two-stepped around as the floor became mushier, trying to avoid soaking her rather thin slippers in an overlarge pond of murky water.  
  
"It's just an illusion," Kenta chided her. "We like our privacy, you know. So we placed this faux swamp here to deter outsiders-if you just will it away, it'll vanish; no fancy equipment needed."  
  
Four breaths were simultaneously held as four minds each attempted to dispel the rather squelchy mirage-they were let go all at once, as well, as the oozing landscape they thought to be crossing disappeared without even blinking once.  
  
Naomi allowed herself to proceed without doing jitterbugs. Link no long had to rumple his sharp nose at the odiferous bayou, and Posie and Elaine wore looks of a homogenous, yet candid relief.  
  
Over the course of the day so far, Link had grown on harboring trees in his eyes, so a little jolt of stunned awe coursed through him when he realized there came a point in his sight where he could find only grass. It was short but ecstatically green, rather like a vast and well-groomed lawn. It danced around in little hillocks where only the occasional shrub dared to tread, re-weaving itself into a new pattern every time the wind took a different highway. A few saddened stems stuck up from the ground-the tired stubs of dandelions, having already lost their seeds in soft explosions. A particularly strong gust, no doubt, or a direct hit with a swollen raindrop- feral Zoran children didn't seem to be of the sort who'd purposefully blow out their white flames.  
  
Elaine jogged ahead of the group, closely followed by Posie. Excited, knowing their next destination was less than a half-mile ahead of them, they used their size to convenience as they dodged a few embracing bushes to reach the place where the forest began balding. Link shouting a "Wait, hold up!" to their backs as he attempted to pick up speed against the messy floor, they cleared the last tree before anyone else of the group did. (Except, of course, for maybe Navi, who leapt from head to head in the ordeal and could have been alight on any one's when the two girls made their exit.)  
  
The two of them stopped when a log appeared in their crow's-flight path, and they leapt up on its back with the Olympic agility only joy can bring. Posie found her clasp on the slippery, rubber-fuzz moss so she could lie upon it stabily, while Elaine knelt and watched, as if to be a spectator to an amazing sport.  
  
Indeed, the placid god that was Lake Lolita was something very demanding of the eye. There were those who preferred its solemn company to that of Hylia's, for though Hylia could claim to dive deeper, Lolita was broader and its speckled surface did indeed seem at distance a sea, one which oscillated from the bright shallows to the dark depths in ways Hylia never did. Every time the rain stuck him, this king gained a new ring, one which, should it desire, could become as big as the lake himself.  
  
It was a sight both mesmerizing and calming. Link and Naomi let themselves crumple up by the felled tree Posie and Elaine had claimed, taking a few gulps of the ionized air and enjoying the sweet scent the rain left upon their tongues. But they all knew what lay beneath the surface of that water, and this left them devoid of peace. Even if Kenta had been highly courteous.  
  
Speaking of such, the Zoran underling slid up behind them, mercifully holding behind to give them their moment of accomplishment. But once they had enjoyed their brief breather, it was time to press forward and under Lolita's surface. Clearing his throat rather loudly, so it could be heard over the ruckus the downpour was making, he said, "Well, let us move on now. Milord is waiting for us."  
  
Elaine turned around to look at Kenta, then after a few moment's pondering made the decision to stand. Two blotches of a new green painted her dress, right above her knees. "How are we going to go in? We don't have gills, you know."  
  
"Your seals," and Kenta gestured to her chest. With his fine, enhanced eyes, the spined crest of Water shone like a neon drawing through her clothes. "Once you are accepted by the Lake, you will be able to breathe as if in air."  
  
"Tidy," clicked Posie, who had briefly admired the henna-like spot made on her personage back when she had had her soak. "These do, err, wash off, don't they? I think Knashi said they did."  
  
"A single drop of Lolita's water anywhere on your body and it will vanish. You will have been taken."  
  
"And we can return. At any time. And still get through?" Even though this had been the gist of their sleeker guide, Knashi, Link looked for a reassuring confirmation from a resident of the lake they were about to trespass into.  
  
"This is a gift which cannot be taken back. Though we may appear harsh, we are a bit more trusting of those with the courage to make it this far. Unlike that Deku Tree of the Lost Woods, who will sometimes hand out more temporary spells."  
  
Link sighed a little-he did live in those very Woods after all, and did not like its planted guardian spoken ill of. Even less, its humanoid one. But Posie did not cringe at this minor slander at all-the Great Deku Sprout had always treater her very poorly. No, not even the mayor of her homestead liked her-well, no respect, as they were so fond of saying. Whomever they might have been, who so liked to revel in clichés.  
  
"So I guess we just-"-Naomi creaked up on her feet again, staring determinedly at the surface tension she was soon to break-"-walk on in, then?"  
  
Kenta bowed a little, with respect, and muttered, "Not without me. Even if the waters see you as no harm, there may be those among my people who would wish you gone. Even though the court has been informed of your coming; indeed it was they who sent me-certain, ah, peoples harbor a deep dislike of the human race."  
  
Links hand raced behind his neck in an unconscious, flinchy little gesture. Its jagged terrain was mapped out in scars-like much else of his body. Nobody could affirm this wild-Zora's statement better than he. Their fire- spitting mages had left deep burns on large segments of his back. Nearly taken a sizable shred of his nose, though with one like his, it wasn't like he'd miss it. "I know what you're talking about."  
  
"You have had tangles with them before."  
  
Posie nodded for him. "Too many. I know-he's told me them all. And, hey, if you won't listen to our voices-his scars speak for themselves. Third-degree burns that never completely healed from your mages, I think?"  
  
Fingering the skin between his shoulder blades, it having the texture of row of tilled soil, Link nodded in affirmation. At the time that mark had been laid there, it had been a very big, very serious, potentially life- threatening wound, so of course Link had little to no recollection of the actually event itself or the recovery. Every back-blast, every gut-punch, every thigh-slash was a complete whirl of blindness now. He could easily attribute any cut he possessed to some Universal Injury. Ganon was a good pick.  
  
"Uh-oh," Elaine suddenly warbled.  
  
Link zipped a gaze over to his right. Elaine was tentatively fingering her scalp, upon which every thread of her russet-colored hair stood erect as the trees in the forest behind. An entire crimson curtain waved delicately up behind Naomi's head, as if suspended in a bizarre anti-gravity bind.  
  
He had witnessed this phenomena before, in the now-lost chapter of his career detailing the adventures of a boy roused from seven years of sleep to find himself a man. Rip Van Winkle, only under shorter detainment. But this. he could feel the bubbling feeling rising up in his hairs, charming them like an army of thing gold snakes This was what it had been like before the Phantom Ganondorf called down upon his deadly bolts in an attempt to strike Link down.  
  
".Guys?" Posie swallowed a bitter mouthful of phlegm-it tasted like fear. Bloody fear. "I think this means we should run."  
  
Somehow even with the prophecy of what was to come Link trickled a few loose lacings of sad humor. "Are Gerudos really faster than lightning, Naomi?"  
  
The bolt had not even crashed upon them yet and already they seemed frozen by it, it having melted through their bodies and fusing their feet with the earth below. "That was-sort of a joke."  
  
Someone finally had the sense to realize that, if the four of them continued to gawk up at the heavens like a peck of befuddled turkeys, several million volts of unbridled static would surge open the clouds and be born merely for the purpose of reducing the lot of them to smoking cinders. Said person was also tasting the lightning before it was ever created, sniffing out the tracers it let down to find a suitable spot to land upon. The miraculous energy-detecting powers of Navi were at work again, and she took it upon herself to act.  
  
When it comes to magic, fairies do not have much of it. Only enough to give them prolonged life and unnatural endurance, plus the odd sixth and seventh sense. But like any magic-wielding creature they can draw from a source if one is nearby, and next to Navi there just happened to be a rather large one. A person-by the name of Posie Cassandra Blade. Untapped magepulse soared around her body, a side effect of being the child of a Sage-and as Posie was not very adept at magic, very little of it had ever been used.  
  
Navi, therefore, used what little spare magic she had to secure a drain- line in Posie's sources, funneling as much of the unattempted power into herself as her fay body could hold. A ripe flavor much like that of the world's most potent pepper rolled around her tongue on the exact millisecond she mimed a yank on her tapping string, pulling out a supreme flood that left the five of them absent from the world just as the heavenly spear had struck.  
  
From Posie's point of view, this experience was a most extraordinary one indeed. Though she knew that lightning would strike within the seconds, she felt oddly overwhelmed by lethargy and unable to attempt a rescue of even her own self. The peculiar rumbling that came with warp-song travel began to emanate from her gut, but she could not have guess that an instant later she would suddenly be smote blind, deaf and paralyzed via a sensation that seemed to her like her soul being drawn out from her lungs. Was it the bolt? For a moment she blacked out, unable to determine what had just become of the physical world.  
  
She then looked down with a suddenly-restored sight, only to find herself still lying upon the log, which now bobbed in the middle of some vast ocean.  
  
The lake seemed so much larger when one was right in the middle of it.  
  
"What in the name.?" Naomi breast-stroked a few paces forward, taking as her raft the jerking, swirling piece of rotting wood. "What just happened here?"  
  
"I dunno," gasped Posie, who fell over on her stomach, "but I feel like that lightning bolt killed me and than one of the Goddesses brought me back to life."  
  
"Amazing magic," awedly whispered the idly drifting Zora. Not everyone had been transported with the same relative placement-Elaine was clutching his shoulders with the viciousness of her will to life, even though the air buoyed under the water was hers for the taking now. "Someone among us executed a spot-of-the-minute group teleportation spell. To take five people even a quarter of a mile." He shook his head, his reflection blurrily agreeing with him. "Which of you is capable of such magic?"  
  
"None of us alone," said Navi, who had performed the spell from her usual refuge of Link's hat, now flitting out to make her deed public. "I cast the spell, but the magic came from Posie. She's got plenty of it to spare, and I-err, figured since she's not exactly using it, it wouldn't hurt to nick a little."  
  
"So that's what that was," groaned an astonished Posie, massaging her temple a little while her eyes drooped in fatigue. "Well, it did hurt; a lot, and I don't think that was just a little," she scoffed. Her heart pounded like that of a marathon runner, even though she had done none of the work of channeling the weave of the spell. She had merely been the vessel holding the proper ingredients. "You could ask before doing that again."  
  
"Well sorry, Little Miss Princess, but someone had to do something, or else we'd all be adventurers flambé, electricity being the pyrotectant of choice. And since everyone was so mesmerized with the prospect of their immanent death, it had to be me!"  
  
"Look, Navi, I don't know if you've ever had your magic yanked from your body from an outside force, but it really is painful," Link showed his full support. "You've saved the day for us again, I won't deny, but that was sort of a mean thing to do without asking. I don't have a lot of magic in me, but I've had it taken from me by Zelda and the Sages in battles because my magic is inherently more effective on Ganon's armies than theirs. Simply because it's mine. It's not exactly a hobby of mine-to have so much power taken from such a small body in so short a time must have been excruciating."  
  
"For a moment, it was like I was trying to breathe in fire," Posie related in the best way she could. "Then I fainted-"  
  
"We all did, it wasn't a faint," Navi explained. "For just a mere second we were on the plane of oblivion while we were moved here, over the lake. I'm. I'm really sorry about that, Posie."  
  
"Well, at least we live," gulped Kenta. "I thank you, Navi, but mostly I thank Posie, for fueling our escape."  
  
Elaine trembled, dress sodden and clingy, "I want to get out of here."  
  
Link paddled about, peering underwater in an attempt to seek the palace where the so-called King of the Sea lived. His vision, he found upon submerging his head, was as clear he could receive above water. Though he didn't feel anything suddenly sprout around his neck, he could draw in with his human lungs and be given the satisfaction of a long, deep breath. "Where we really need to go is down," he said, stroking his messy bangs out of his eyes as they glued themselves there with a conglomeration of water drops. "And, so far, the breathing underwater thing checks out all right."  
  
"Swim down?" asked Naomi, nicking her idle feet a few inches as the log clutched whirlpooled around.  
  
Elaine openly shuddered at this. "But I can't swim," she protested. "All I know how to do is sink."  
  
"Sinking might be a good thing here," mused Posie, peering over the edge of her overgrown raft into the enigmas wrapped up beneath the rippling surface. "You'd get down, wouldn't you?"  
  
Kenta clicked his beaded tongue a few times at this. "Not good enough. The human body is light; it floats, and in order to be grabbed by the undertow spells that keep us on the floor you need to paddle down further. If you do not know how to swim, as you say-"-He looked down to his shoulder, which had been taken hostage by Elaine-"-then I suggest you learn. You will have to learn someday, anyway."  
  
"It's not too hard, is it?"  
  
"Nah," said Link, who splashed up to the flipping Wild-Zora and took hold of Elaine's arm. "Just kick your feet and move your arms. Like this!" He did a few petite laps in front of her for effect, hoping she would-to coin an appropriate pun-get the drift of it. "I could show you how next time you visit us in the forest; we've got a little river you know. But for now, I suppose I could just pull you down or. something."  
  
Naomi suddenly yelped when her bar of support spun over as if under the cleats of a mad log-roller, taking Posie for a tumble into the surprisingly temperate waters of Lake Lolita. Posie's outfit instantly turned a dark, sodden shade of olive green, her hair becoming a dampened hay. Purposefully sticking her head under, she attempted to inhale. Not a deep breath, mind, in case the spells set upon her were faulty, but just one enough to test the veracity of the spell. She did not feel it go directly into her lungs as air normally would have, but no check would reveal gills or anything of the sort outside her body. It had to be an inner change, then, that let the breath finally come to her as a refreshing gulp of oxygen.  
  
She came up, hardly confounded by the sudden switch from water to wind. "My water-breathing spell seems OK too. I guess yours would be fine, then, as well."  
  
Squeezing all the bravery she could muster out of her already-wrung heart, Elaine let go of Kenta's slippery limb and let herself plunge under. Second near-drowning experience in two days, she thought. I survived once, so I should be able to go it again, right?  
  
The fact that her lungs made no effort to cease their tireless job even as their normal airway was muffled by the lake surprised her, at first. Opening her fearfully-clamped eyes, she was assaulted with a clear and utterly peaceful scene of particles drifting near the surface of the water, suspended eternally in a season of serenity even while a storm-fed tension wracked the silvery ceiling above her.  
  
My Goddesses. This actually works!  
  
Not that she would take the utterly incredible Knashi for a crackpot, but some things had just seemed to implausible to her before. Like the fact that Tony the Terrible and Posie's feud goes way back to their parents' days, a nasty little devil living in the back of her skull chided her. But living in the here and now, and actually feeling the water she inhaled turn to breathable oxygen, her soul-wound tight as a rubber band-snapped open and relaxed. She decided to try and force a yawn to see what would happen, but the merest thought drove her mouth agape. Still, she didn't choke. She aimed for one further experiment.  
  
Even without splashing at all, her body hung comfortably just below the lake's tossed surface. She stuck her head up a little, fighting a little to keep it in a steady position. Right where her nose lingered above the surface tension, but where her mouth was submerged. Calling her nostrils to a halt, she took a deep breath in through her mouth. and let it escape through her nose. Then she reversed-she took a breath through her nose and let it fly between her lips. Whatever system had been fixed up inside her apparently took an interchangeable atmosphere. Concentric circles blossoming on the lake's surface slightly distorted her eager smile.  
  
"Not so difficult once you get the hang of it," the bubbles popped beneath her ear. Though it was somewhat of a sloppy gurgle to normal hearing, apparently their charms had worked on their ears as well. Words spoken beneath waters were clear as a summer sky. Posie's head darted up beside Elaine's, and her slurped gulp was only one of exhaustion.  
  
Elaine was at lost for something in which she could say in reply to this. "My foot feels all squishy," she ad-libbed. "The one that still has a shoe on it."  
  
Posie laughed. "If my boots weren't Kokiri make, I'd be fearing for their lives right now," she chuckled. "They're leather. They'd shrink like. until. well, like washed wool until they were too small even for me!"  
  
Elaine grinned and blew a few pearly bubbles into the water. Even Posie could make jokes about her size on occasion-just so long as she knew her company would laugh at the joke itself and not its subject matter. "Not to mention they'd get all stiff and cracked. What DO you Kokiri treat your clothes with, anyway, and why don't you sell it?"  
  
"Hey, tell it to the Deku Tree, not me." Posie shrugged, then sunk underneath the great rippling blue.  
  
Someone grabbed the hem of Elaine's dress-it was Naomi, kicking her way into the heavily-shaded deep. It occurred to Elaine, recalling ancient tidings of safety from the adult's lectures, that they were probably in a very dangerous situation at the moment. Lightning had already proved itself capable of striking nearby, what if it hit the lake? Hopefully the Zoran colony was situated deep enough that and electric pulse would lack the push to make it there.  
  
The quality of light underwater quickly changed from suffocated of sun to eerily illuminated. Mage-lights of myriad blues delicately decorated fallen shells and pieces of seaweed, almost indistinguishable from the bubbles themselves except for their subtle glow and engorged size. The particles of jetsam found floating in the water became thinner and sparser as they dived deeper, and the pressure caved in on everyone's heads. Posie's ears popped no less than three times as she relentlessly scooped through the water in effort to stay abreast of her crew. Link had had plenty of experience under water before, and figured he would probably come off the end of this episode with a bad case of the bends.  
  
Then they approached what looked like a strange film in the water, like one might find between water and oil poured on top. Beneath it the lake looked even more infinitely blue than it had on the surface; blue enough to be a rival of the ancient eyes of the Blades. Almost electric blue, Elaine thought, and was uncomfortable reminded by her own self of what toiled in the clouds. It seemed free of even the mites the rest of the waters possessed.  
  
Kenta stopped in his strokes right before it, stoking up a few gentle whirlwinds of foam and being exceedingly cautious not to come in contact with the force field. Naomi extended her free arm to Elaine's torso, hugging the girl to her chest as she fought not to surface. Posie followed her friend's earlier example, savoring her time stuck to Link's arm. Fighting the fierce water pressure was tiring, and seeing her fatigue, Link was more than happy to let her stay. He even gave her an extra safeguard against floating away, by firmly placing a hand over her.  
  
"Once you pass through here, you'll sink gently to the bottom and you may walk as normal," he edified them. "Please don't go wandering off, as I feel you may encounter the less courteous of our denizens all too soon."  
  
"In other words, the ones who want to kill us."  
  
"Perhaps I would not put it in such. blunt a tongue," Kenta murmured, nonchalantly blowing a few wreaths of foam up into the lake. "But that is the basic idea.  
  
"Now then, bottoms up!" He twisted over on his stomach to paddle down into the oozing shield, which sucked around him like a greedy jelly. His claw- decorated fins, the last to pass through, let it pucker back up around them with little cracks and ant's gunshots. Underneath the surface, swirled as the sphere of a soap bubble is, he twisted upright and fell in a melting fashion some twenty feet down the lake bottom.  
  
Posie broke free from Link and volunteered to be the next through. She did not like the feeling of passing through the protective coating; it felt like hands made from the stuff of a bog were poking at her skin. But the first fingers she ventured into the odd, magic gel felt something akin to a tropical sea beneath, and so she sliced apart the curdled water to venture into whatever lie beneath it.  
  
As soon as no part of her was trapped in the clammy palms of the shield, her boots seemed to pick up an imaginary ballast and immediately flew beneath her. She felt like a feather caught in the wind's game of tag as she delicately swirled down to end in a delicate crumple on the lemon- colored silt. All around her, her friends peered about at the curious invisible elevator into which they had stepped. Only Naomi managed to stay on her feet once her toes reached sandy bottom. Link and Elaine hit gently, it was true, but their noses still filled up with mushy mud.  
  
Kenta had clearly done this several times before. He'd stroked in pinwheels as he'd fallen, looking silly though maintaining his balance all the way to a perfect ten-point landing. He let the inexperienced group time to right themselves before he dared speak again. "Fine, then. Is everyone here?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"I'm here!"  
  
"Righty."  
  
"Yeah. whatever."  
  
"Still here. .If anyone cares."  
  
"Well, incurably bitter since we forced you to look after the kids, are you, Navi? Come on, lighten up! Don't be scum on the underside of a rock." Link grabbed his hat and gave it a good squeeze, making Navi gag. "Here, take the opportunity to do the job you came to do. Talk about the wild Zora" He reached under and yanked her forcibly out, flicking her into the open(and ghastly, diamondly clear) waves. Even with fairy magic, there was no way she was going to fly underwater-not even in this surreal liquid that might not be water at all, the way it left no drag on any of Link's previous actions. The most she could do was whip up a lather, no matter how hard she beat her wings. So it was she was reduced to the single most humiliating mode of transportation for a fairy-walking.  
  
"Errmmm. well. the Wild-Zora. can I still hitch a ride, Link?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Posie?"  
  
"Hoof it, Glowball." Navi's back got a seaweed rubdown, thanks to the small(but derisive) kick she'd just received.  
  
".Elaine?"  
  
She ignored the fay entirely.  
  
Navi gulped. ".Naomi?"  
  
The Gerudo snorted, kneading her right shoulder with her left arm. Bubbles erupted from her nose. "This is funny! I think I'll watch your misery for a while."  
  
Kenta rolled his eyes a complete 360 degrees back into his head and around again, switching the view the others caught from him from front to back. He began his paces towards something that sent spirals of rainbow-colored light through the water, carved high and glittering like a grand castle set in gemstones. He was wordless, but Link saw. He dashed after the scout and servant, priceless clouds spawning in his wake. Posie, Elaine, and Naomi took after him. Their collective breaths were a quick, sloshing rush.  
  
"Hey! Wait! .I can't run that fast! Man, don't leave me behind again!"  
  
And so the little fairy struggled onward, through the hungry lake floor that threatened to slurp her up like only so much Halloween candy.  
  
No difficulties could the crew have spoken off. To them, the sand was firm and an expedient dash, not messy and full of slippage like that in the Haunted Wasteland. The fairytale structure in the distance grew far more defined as they marched up to it; though it was nothing quite as romantic as a towering palace pasted with emeralds and rubies, it was near enough. Castle? Yes. Albeit a crude one; more of a reinforced fortress. But the walls were paneled in tiles beaten with authentic mother-of-pearl. It was impressive even without well-defined turrets and towers, shimmering like a lost treasure in the gilded sea floor. And it had likely been built for service, too, what with its thick outer wall and heavy gates. Though it did slightly beg the question as to who in their right mind would attack something on the bottom of a lake.  
  
The effect was awesome; it was also more than a little bit blinding up close. Red fires, green jungles, pink sunsets and blue oceans yelled at their eyes from every angle imaginable, occasionally multiplying thousandfold when one of the Goddesses' electric howls split the sky. A spike that hit true to the lake arched mercifully across the grease-like barrier over the castle, forming a fleeting yellow spider web above their heads. It was a lucky thing for them that they were so well protected, though it can be said that it still put their hearts in a frenzy and threatened to do in their eardrums.  
  
Green, teal, and occasionally purple tickled the edges of their vision. Posie was doing pirouettes back and forth to try and get a full view of one of the gofering Zora maids or servants, occasionally managing to put all of a back in her head, or pulling in the details of a pair of strong Zora legs. And Elaine was beginning to notice that large red lips were a rarer Zora feature than she thought. Some of them had thin, bluish lips. Oddly, those with the lips did not seem to have noses. Those without, however, had pushed-up gorilla-like noses, and those seemed to have a more vibrant coloration than the others. Perhaps the Zora species split even further among this clan here?  
  
"Ah, excuse me," she mumbled to Kenta, following him around a corner and nearly avoiding a run-in with a serving cart. "How come some of the Zoras don't have any lips like you, but have noses instead?"  
  
"Oh, we all have noses, but the males' are less prominent. But, the females have smaller lips, so I suppose we're not so shortchanged."  
  
So the brighter, nosed ones were females, and the ones with lips were males. It made better sense now. Posie nose suddenly became very itchy and she had to scratch it, feeling a little grateful hers had been tamed a little by her mother's genes, wasn't quite the schnoz her father's was. Or, that human females did not suffer a similar gender discrepancy.  
  
Funny looks battered them through the many winding hallways they transversed, but even the most literally boiling glances were harnessed. Lucky for them, the King of the Sea and all his court had been informed of their coming.  
  
Eventually they came to a room almost indistinguishable from every other corridor they had seen, save that the paisley on its walls was interrupted here by strips of seaweed that hung vertically down, decked in numerous Zoran figureheads and crests and majestic, impressionistic corals. Upon a gilded dais at the end of the hall there was a relatively dull looking chair, carved and complied out of warped and salted woods that had already seen the battering of a century's worth of waves. And for the show his lodgings put on the King of the Sea looked like nothing special-he was simply a very large wild-Zora male with all of the standard-issue red wing- gills, beaded green skin, and the inner-tube lips around which the water boiled every time he spoke. The small fish which swam about the place like free-range, docile birds clearly avoided his headspace. Those who strayed inside it were likely impromptu snacks.  
  
Kenta deposited them at his feet, and genuflected in a submissive, but highly respectful manner. Much like a priest to the altar of his god. Link gave a slight bow of introduction, and Posie and Elaine pulled off curtsies much tidier than those they had attempted to show Princess Zelda. Even Naomi managed a well-mannered kneel, and this was to the leader of one of her race's greatest enemies! Meanwhile, their highly helpful guide skittered back through a congestion of scholars and mages, nearly stepping on a fairy only just keeping her lungs from bursting as she rather painfully caught up.  
  
The great statuesque Zora budged, relaxedly blinking and sucking on the water around him. "So. You have come to our lake."  
  
"Yes, sir," Link nodded. Though this Zora was definitely in a position of high power, he felt somehow that a "Majesty" or "Milord" wasn't in order here. "We were hoping to ask a favor of you."  
  
"Hmm." The King's right hand suddenly shot up, prickly thumb and forefinger perfectly skewering an unwary minnow innocently drifting past. Breathing a rush of steam and fiery bubbles, he cooked its insides into a useless mash before he slurped it up as a mid-conversation treat. "Favor. One does not usually ask favors of royalty. suppose you could get away with it again, I think. What do you want?"  
  
As if made top-heavy by its great weight, that Zora's immense head lunged forward, Link's entire face absorbed in one titanic eyeball of brewing red and slivered black.  
  
"Ah. um. Well, we're going to Mount Ipanajou, and we were informed by a very reliable source that you-"-Link noticed how panicked his reflection in the immense crimson iris was-"-you might be able to help us get there." On the "might," that infernal "might," Link's voice cracked like a neglected hardwood floor. He had to struggle to not see the Wild-Zora king in blonde ponytails, suddenly his younger sister Aryll who had teased him horribly while his voice had been changing.  
  
"Hmmm." The King retracted, as if into a shell. "Ipanajou." If he had had a beard, or anything slightly resembling one, he would have stroked it. He spat, "Our kind never go up that way."  
  
Link and Naomi winced with synchronization. Link because the reply was harsh as a summer's day, Naomi because the King had "accidentally" spat a short jet of boiling water in her direction.  
  
"But," his expression softened, "that is not to say we do to know the way from here."  
  
Posie looked enthusiastic askance up at the king, only half daring to believe those sweet, candy words.  
  
"We could not send a guide up with you, no, but we could provide you with an adequate map. I am sure, one much better than the one you are currently using, which I daresay has become a limp pulp at the hands of the lake."  
  
Link hadn't been thinking about that. His face puckered. Vellum parchment was hard to come by, though it could withstand much more than his simple paper map. Which was no doubt, yes, now a sloppy mass of wood shavings putting glop on the rest of his supplies. Oh, dear-and what of their food? He performed his signature front sling and tore open that front flap, and threw aside the mass of dribbly ink and soggy sawdust to forlornly lift up a soggy sandwich.  
  
"And I most certainly feel some new supplies are in order for you. Four people to Ipanajou, along the quickest route-quite a bit you're going to be needing, to make it through. This will certainly cost you, Link, you realize that."  
  
"Hoping that my wallet hasn't shrunken on me and got my money in a stranglehold, how much would that be?"  
  
"Hmm." The King tattooed his claws across the pores of his throne, pondering some design he had carved into his armrest in a fit of boredom. "I do not want to overcharge you, but I do not want to give myself the short end of the stick. would a price tag of 200 rupees sit reasonably with you, Link?"  
  
Link performed a quick mental calculation, factoring in what he had paid the Freezair and subtracting it all from what he had initially brought-as much as he could stuff into his wallet, roughly 1000 rupees worth of cash in yellow, purple, red, blue and green denominations. And even that was tiny tubers compared to what was, in truth, his immense fortune. His job did pay very well, after all. "I can manage that pretty easily, yeah. How's that all add up?"  
  
"Oh, around thirty rupees for the navigational advice. and 170 for the food," the King of the Sea laughed.  
  
Link had a happily indifferent smile. "Sounds about all right when you ask me."  
  
The fishy monarch braced his arms up against their respective rests, and took a moment to apparently un-wedge his massive posterior from the slightly cramped chair, standing upright upon his slicing feet and wiggling his fingers in rumination. "Now, if I recall correctly, our libraries are somewhere over this way, where we can get you a better map. And-Kenta!" What served as his neck snapped around, and the water sizzled as the King of the Sea spat a torrent of flame that quickly created bubbles full of steam.  
  
"Yes, sir?" The servant meekly stepped forward, perhaps a tad frightened by his lord's sudden display.  
  
"Notify the kitchens. We need a week's supply of food for four. and make sure you tell them it's humans we're preparing for, so they'll keep the showy stuff to a minimum."  
  
Silently he bowed and skirted backwards through a hallway that, a minute ago, the party had not noticed had been there. Excluding Navi, who had most excellent eyesight if she did say so herself.  
  
"Sssso." Posie licked her lips, not surprisingly finding them tasting slightly of fish. "How do you keep books underwater, anyway?"  
  
"We don't," the King answered, taking heavy, echoed steps off toward the heavily abalone-plated doors lurking behind the throne. However, rather than an all-out assault of mother-of pearl, the designers of this structure had been more sparing, instead creating deep-carved patterns set with the mineral, transforming simple cuts into generous platinum plants. There's an underwater cave that's dry as a bone over this way, and we store the books there. Though with some of our scrolls, we cover them in a waterproofing solution. which I daresay we had best do with your new map."  
  
"What sort of solution?"  
  
"Well, we have a bit of machine that we, ah, may have, err, smuggled from the Outside."  
  
"But that's illegal!" exclaimed Naomi, who didn't even bother to realize that she was not one to be talking about illegal activities. She did, however, realize that it likely did not matter much, as this was a colony of feral Zoras here who was likely well out of the King's jurisdiction.  
  
"It's really harmless," the King of the Sea tried to defend himself. "All it does is just coat papers with a small layer of plastic. You ever seen plastic before? It's not all that common here in Hyrule, but I here it's becoming bigger in, hmm, where's that again? Ah, Holodrum."  
  
Naomi glared at the enlarged water sprite, but figured it not a topic worth lingering over. 


	14. The Moblin Fortress

((CAN: Well, if you're reading this, it's a good thing. It means you weren't entirely turned off by the last chapter. Ha, small victory for me! *does dance* Hey, I've said it before(not necessarily in previous CAN's, but believe me, I have), I write things my OWN way and nobody will ever stop me! Muahahahaha. I actually don't have anything of interest to say in this CAN, except. umm, visit my site! !))  
  
((Wait. I DO have something to say. The Moblins are not supposed to be caricatures of New Yorker gangsters. They're like the Lizafos-their mouth parts just weren't made for human speak, so they sound weird. Just like the Lizafos got glucky, mumbled voices because of the way a lizard's mouth is set up, I can imagine the big jaw of a Moblin would create a muffled, slurred accent. Like a person with a cold! And, like the Lizafos again, their grip of human grammar isn't the greatest. ;) And about mid-chapter, feelings get verrrry tense between Link and Naomi. They're swearing at each other every couple sentences, just to give you fair warning. Also, you get a cookie if you know what puffy blue birds actually have to do with dragons. Muahahahaha.))  
  
Spinning Slash, Chapter 14: The Moblin Fortress  
  
"You and your comrades have been honored guests, Sir Blade. It has been a pleasure having you at our fort. even the Gerudo has been. pleasant."  
  
Naomi muttered something through the pursed corner of her lips while Link offered his hand out to tempt the fin of the King of the Sea. Even as royalty, he genially accepted it and heartily jostled Link, who was grinning from pointy ear to pointy ear. Sun was beginning to whistle through fissures in the insofar damp-wool-tinted stormhead above. Lightning was beginning to cease its seemingly eternal report, dropping its rigmarole in favor of the hum of a cleansed-smelling wind. What little rain dared to fall slid right off the caramel roll Link clutched in his left hand, repelled by the fantastic magic of technology and the King's(albeit quite illegal) laminating machine. And his backpack may have smelled a little fishy, but that was only because it was no near to overflowing with delicacies from the King's own great kitchen.  
  
"We're the ones who owe you thanks, Your Majesty," Link smiled glitteringly. "If it weren't for you, we'd all be wandering this forest like lost ducklings for who knows how long. probably starve to death." He withdrew his arm to scratch his head in a puzzled fashion.  
  
"Thank you, Sir," Posie bowed, with a bit of the forced politeness children are known to heft with them. But she was truly grateful for the guidance his finest geographers had provided them with. "We owe you one."  
  
"Two." Elaine added an addendum. "Direction and food." The more svelte cousins of the anthropomorphic fish that had just aided them had served them with a seafood breakfast that morning, and Elaine had become rather attached to an unusual shrimp dish served there, one with an almost nutty taste. She though one of the peculiar odors in Link's pack smelt exactly of them, though she couldn't be sure. Perhaps the cooks had simply made a dish including peanuts, in which case Elaine was very disappointed indeed.  
  
"Yeah, and I guess. Hmm. Well, it may have been totally against the law, but that machine of yours was pretty clever. Putting that coat on the map and all. Neat," Naomi jumblingly complimented. The Gerudo instinct to detesting anything Zora still lingered heavily in her system, though their earlier guardian Knashi had freed up a number of those switches that morning. "Or do my words count for nothing, being Gerudo and all?"  
  
"I think such prejudices are beyond us now," the King of the Sea dryly responded. "Considering that your company has accepted for you for what you are, I think it is safe for us to do the same."  
  
Naomi's skin was too dark to show it, but by the way her cheeks rose, it was clear she was blushing.  
  
"Best wishes to you on your journey, Link," the King of the Sea amiably clapped him on the shoulder. From its exceedingly immense size, it went a ways down his arm and up some of his neck as well. "As we Zoras like to say, 'May all the waters you swim be warm ones.' But, as I have heard it, you humans have an expression you favor as well; hmm, what is it? Ah, I know. 'Break a leg.'"  
  
Navi laughed. "Dunno about breaking, but the little one here got hers bitten yesterday by an ugly little lizard," and Navi motioned backwards and down in Posie's direction.  
  
"Figure of speech," Posie waved it away.  
  
"So it is, young one. And those are perhaps some of the wisest ever spoken. So it is."  
  
*************************  
  
A crafty Zora hand had been wise in the path they etched across the sturdy parchment of the weathered map. The fine Octorok ink undulated across the crackly surface, dotting in some places and hiking steady in others, arching over a minor foothill and past one great ravine before splashing out in a grand "X" at the foot of their destination, Ipanajou. Scrawled beside the brilliant calligraphy of the map's legend were less graceful letters explaining the finer details of the path, ensuring that Link and co. would not be led astray. And it began by actually retracing some of their former steps, then hooking a sharp left and proceeding out into hilly, moor-like land, something which took up much of the rest of the day. They had no other guides to aide them this time, but Link's sense of direction was uncharacteristically well-honed at the moment and they managed to be well into the grassland most befitting Hyrule before the sky's diamonds were peeping over the tree-scarred horizon.  
  
Link arranged a small cone of Deku Sticks in a patch of land where the grasses seemed to be at their lowest, the newly-designated center of their campsite. But just to be safe, he tore up what weeds he could and dug into the ground a little to help failsafe their fire pit. The storm, though wild, had not brought any heavy winds, and there were none now to incite fear of an inferno. When he was satisfied with his construction, he almost got up to fetch his crystal of fire, but found it wordlessly fetched for him. Ever since Navi had used her to siphon from for her spell, Posie had seemed eager to prove she could put her magic to use in her own fashion. Though it took her a few taps and shakes to coax any flame out of the relic, eventually she managed to make Din's Fire trickle down from its orb of reserve to bring their campfire to its burning life.  
  
The good spirits were infectious. Navi was happily caught humming the Hyrulean National Anthem to herself, while Elaine and Naomi pitched in their share and helped to unroll the sleeping bags from Link's pack, of which there were only three, and all of which were very damp. But the night was warm, as Summer exhausted the last of its gusto before Autumn stole its reins and began to drive the chariot of the seasons for the infinith time this eternity. The ground itself was rather moist from the rain earlier, but the bedrolls would likely dry out faster if they were nestled a bit closer to the fire.  
  
Elaine's hopes and prayers happened to have come true, as well. The fishy delicacy she had sampled back in Zora's Domain was included in luxurious amounts in the food pack the Wild-Zoras had given them, and she ate as many of them as she felt she could hold without bursting. Link found himself solace in a simple tuna salad, hardly different from the kind humans made, while Posie found herself surprisingly enjoying oysters on the half shell. Naomi had personally had enough fish for one day, and settled on a simple fruit concoction she had found sealed in a jar. (Looking at it, Link confirmed it had been something Saria had put together, having survived the lake depths because of its canning.)  
  
With a round of "Good nights," the four of them blissfully collapsed on to their pallets, Posie cozying up against Link so Naomi could have one of the bags. Navi flew into Link's side-flown hat for her bed, and Elaine was the last to toss water on their fire before the lot of them drifted off from their second day of adventure.  
  
Having slept alone many times during Ganon's reign and not suffering ill effects because of it, Link was not one familiar with the idea of a night watchman. Though it would have done him well, as there was certainly much to be wary of in what was so-called the "dead" of night.  
  
In one of the sporadic bushes that exploded up in the middle of the plains, some dark form hunkered and watched with eyes half hidden by a ring of puffy, pouchy skin, the color of a bruise. Bristling, rotting-wood hairs grew every which colliding way from a face something of a cross between a pig and a bulldog's; four sets of hog's ears twitched like broken springs in time with the rising and falling of the watched ones' chests.  
  
"Is dem's duh ones?" snarled the first Moblin, a terrific, bulky male with a bare, bald crown of skin worn so tough it could serve has his helmet. He was an older, chieftain monstrosity, with gorilla-like arms so crammed with muscle they put a strain against his rusty, grease-lined plate mail.  
  
"Arr, the mistruss's never said nodins' 'bout no Gerudo, and nodins' 'dout no 'ildrens," the second, evidently a scout of some kind sent to bring this message to the field leader, replied. "All dem's said is just ter bring in Lingh, and take whats we gans offa him," he stuttered. His voice was reminiscent of the hiss of an angered cat, and among Moblins, that was what passed for pubescent. The spear he toted as his weapon was clean as a bone picked by Wolfos, unlike his commander's sword, which was orange with oxidization in some places, dirty red from poisonous old blood in others. Clearly, he was a rather new recruit.  
  
"We can't take all of 'is swag, somes of it's too pure fer us Moblins ter lay hands on," the senior snorted, either having previous run-ins with Link or merely being very well lectured in the ways of the Hero. "'Is sword repels monster touches, see, and 'is little fire is d'essed by dem Goddesses demselves," he swallowed, terror rattling the bones of his deep, imperial voice. "In facts, most of dat stuff's too much fer us. But dere's one thing 'e gan't keep from us, and its that what's I'm betting the mistruss's wants."  
  
The junior showed yellow, sharp fangs of understanding. "Dat Ocarina of Time."  
  
Senior nodded, receiving his mission objective confirmation resoundingly clear. "Dat dere Ogarina is what dem mistruss's wants, and it's what dey gets. We gots to sneak up on dems while dey's fast 'sleep, soes dey don' get up and attag us. Joo gots all dat, roogie?"  
  
"'Ut doss, wouldn't its just be eazer ter ambud dems an' tayges dems dag ter duh fert?"  
  
Senior's eyes widened with astonishment. Stealthy, sneaky attacks were not in a Moblin's style, and to them, anything that required quiet and concentration was of high difficulty. In the twisted mass of nerves that was his brain, this most certainly registered as far easier. "Doh-I dunnoes why I didn't dinks of dat erler. Danks, roogie!"  
  
She was jolted into consciousness by a breath, its passage of escape suddenly blocked by an immense paw with fingers that, though crudely jointed, could likely let it serve as a hand. The wind from her chest barely managed to seep out through the cracks between the enormous, sausage- like digits, and when she tried to draw it back, the stench of grime that matted the putrid hairs burned her nose and melted up against her tongue. Her lips were stitched up by the devastating pinch applied by her attacker's mitt-a scream would be nothing more than a worthless murmur stillborn in her throat.  
  
"What the hell is going on here?!?!" The visage Link initially set eyes upon was the greasy, wet ashes of their fire strewn about like the maddened paints of a twisted artist, the feet of creatures more primitive than the lowliest caveman having left their gross imprints in them. He was yanked upright, head crashing about and loosing all sense of its balance-no sooner has his curses flown than an oily rag was crammed into his mouth, littered with tastes of dodgy origins he didn't much care to contemplate. Fighting to remove this obstruction, he found his arms shackled low on his back with a too-tight, chafing rope, and his legs snapped together just as neatly with shackles fashioned out of some thick, pliable wood.  
  
He was rather murky on the case of what had just happened, but viewing Posie's dangerous predicament he could guess. She was nearly enveloped on the whole by the grisly claw of shadowy Moblin, its face a ghastly carving with a smile poisonous enough to give gangrene to its beholders. He tried to make choked but reassuring noises-her eyes, just visible over the plump forefinger of her captor shook like the similarly- colored sea beneath the mangling arm of a typhoon. Under the horrid creature's other limb was Elaine, wriggling fiercely and wailing like a starving ReDead underneath the cloth gag that had been put on her, much like had been done to him.  
  
The animal that Posie had watched bind her father had to be one of the "old giants" she'd heard of from so many stories-rocking precariously on what had to be a mass of twelve feet and at least a ton, his head was a spiked dome of weather-beaten skin, surely a weapon if used in some sort of head-butt attack. The Moblin restraining her and Elaine was smaller, around Randy's size, but it still had hands the size of a healthy Chu-Chu, which was certainly far larger than she was or ever expected to be. Disgusting snorting sounds spurted out of his nostrils, a sound which she could only assume to be deranged laughter.  
  
Naomi, for all her complaints about having trouble falling asleep due to the Freezair's singing, was apparently able to sleep through Armageddon right next door once she finally got into it. The wallowing hogs that had them in a deathgrip had miraculously left her an untouched entity, and only now did she find herself charmed waking by some internal complaint only her soul could register.  
  
There was no sleepy double-take. She was fully alert in a blink's breath to the fact that something was astir, and her dear flesh and blood was in abysmal peril. And, she supposed, a few people that Elaine was rather close to, which did at least garner then some importance. Well, that Posie kid wasn't all that terrible, anyway.  
  
"Sarry ter wakes ya, maym," the one clawing Elaine bowed, attempting to comfort her with a voice that was-well, to call it nails on a chalkboard would be to flatter it. "Dint mean ter cause youse any truddle. 'Ut, danks fer bring'n us dems Lingh, doh wes don' know wut youse is doin' outside yer fert."  
  
Link shot a very deadly glance towards Naomi. Elaine's eyes were a melting iceberg of wonderment, and Posie's harbored more disgust than one would expect could be contained in all her body, let alone her eyes all by themselves. From the Moblin's familiarity, they seemed to deduce her a venomous traitor, one who had from their meeting been leading them into a pig-demon's trap.  
  
"What are you doing with them?" Naomi sat up on her damp sleeping bag and sat cross-legged; a bargaining pose. If she had to argue her companions to freedom, so be it. "Put them down! How does kidnapping them help you?" Hopefully that would be a good, questioning ploy. Moblins, aside from a noticeable lack of I.Q. points, were extremely self-centered, and didn't like doing anything if there was nothing to be gained from it. Moreover, from their answer she could likely deduce why she still hung out there unbound.  
  
"Dis 'ere Lingh is only duh most wanted crim'nal in alla dem mistruss's command, an' dere's a big cash load on 'is 'ere 'ead. We's'll mayg sure dat dem mistruss's give youse a part o' duh moolah, seein' as youse brought 'im to us."  
  
"Mistresses? Who's that?" Naomi realized that she was locking her own shackles by asking these words and thereby giving away her alliance with Link; he still seemed unsure as to whether or not her banter came from genuine confusion and curiosity. Posie and Elaine, perhaps more trusting because of their unjaded youth, seemed to have found sparks of rekindled faith in their hearts.  
  
The big Moblin to her right snarled at her, curls of his odiferous breath poisoning the night. "Whose is youse wid, Gerudo? Are youse with Lingh, or is youse wid Twinrova?"  
  
Well, she couldn't let Elaine get taken without letting her have some sensible backup. She would fly her true colors in front of the swinelike duo and get dragged down with the rest of them. "Who do you think I'm with, bub? Now, like I said before, put my friends down or else I slice off your- butts-and make them into decorative bags to hold your heads."  
  
Link's pupils flew apart as if some invisible spirit of Herculean strength ripped them open. All that was left of their miraculous blue was a frantic ring that suddenly engulfed all but a pinprick of blackness when his captor slung him up on a wharf of a shoulder, grasped Naomi by the neck and snapped her head on a nearby rock.  
  
Junior felt a small, hot wet spot on his torso. He sunk a few claws into Elaine's back as a warning not to drop a tear again, while she could only hope that her mother's blackness had been sudden enough that she hadn't been able to feel the searing heat of the blood that started to rush from her scalp. In her fire-colored hair, and in the deep blur that night brought upon everything, it was next to invisible.  
  
****************************  
  
Posie's knees skidded and scuffed along the chilled, rough stone, rising and falling moisture coating the inside of the cell with what appeared to be a highly prolific colony of algae. True, being five she was prone to her quantity of scraped legs and elbows, but being thrown by a brawny young Moblin to slide across the floor was an overkill.  
  
Elaine screamed over from Junior's other arm, careening into Posie and nearly smothering her under her weight. While the brunette child tried to extract herself as well as she could with a back that screeched blue murder, the slime-encrusted beast wrenched over the heavy steel-and-brass motley that served to keep prisoners in their place. The lock he set to it was small and subtle; not easily spotted, and not easily picked. Posie had noticed being dragged off into these depths that one of the Moblin's claws was oddly shaped and blunt; this turned out to be the very key that sealed them to these walls. In a place like that, it had an extremely low chance of being stolen. With one last bitter smirk, he left them to rot, humming and swinging his fingers at the ends of his fairly limp arms.  
  
Fueled by rage, Elaine shredded the rank cloth constricting her lips, leaving the front of it rended and the knot still perfectly done. "This is beautiful," Elaine sneered, half her mind then choosing to become fixated on rubbing the fresh scabs doting her back. They were raw marks of her Moblin kidnapper's cruelty, etched into her skin for worrying about the fate of Naomi. In the skin? They didn't go deep. Though they had stung like a bee's nest, they barely scratched enough to bleed. But they were puffed, a possible sign of infection-even without an extensive learning in medicine, Elaine could tell they meant some form of trouble. And Posie didn't seem to be having the easiest time breathing.  
  
Posie pulled herself up with aches permeating ever niche she could care to find on her body, the imprint of filthy Moblin hairs a temporary red-and-white tattoo on her cheeks. The air was stale but unobstructed; she tried to regulate her gulps from breath now that the threat of inhaling some muck was decreased. "We're doomed."  
  
"And I thought you were the ray of sunshine."  
  
"Usually I am, but I know when I'm fighting a loosing battle. As it goes, we've already lost that and things are looking pretty bad for the war as well." Deep sigh. Let out a heavy load of air, and take another one back. In and out, in and out, keep it steady and calm and don't panic.  
  
"Elaine, I know I may sound cheeky, but. I'm terrified."  
  
Fighting against the slimy floor for the right to equilibrium, Elaine trotted over, sunk into a kneel, and threw an arm around Posie. All shades of her usual empowered nature vanished. "I am too. So am I."  
  
"I." Posie sniffed, drawing back the tears from both her eyes and her nose. "I want Daddy."  
  
"I want Mom. Goddesses, do you think she's even alive any more?" The dam burst. Posie was given an impromptu saltwater shower, and did not feel restrained in adding what she could into the flow. Perhaps it would even do them some good, considering the squalor that dared to call itself a "floor."  
  
"I-I-I-I'm. I'm s-s-s-sure your mommy is alright, Elaine. She's. really strong." And Posie wasn't just saying that to be reassuring. Somehow she had an unconscious feeling about it-head wounds always bled profusely, and somehow Posie could tell that, even though Naomi blacked out, she wasn't gravely injured. An untrained life-related power, inherited from Saria? Logic was strong enough on its own without a shove from intuition to say "yes."  
  
One of the most powerful philosophies of childhood is the one of the stuffed toy-somehow, hugging one guarantees a little boy or girl everything will turn up, and Posie was just the proper size to serve in place of one. Elaine embraced her best friend and hefted her up off the ground, crying into her face as Posie wept at hers.  
  
Ever since she had been grown enough to recall, Posie had felt. strangely old. Not in the aged sense, simply far too well-traveled, and burdened by the weight of extra knowledge and something invisible tickling her soul. Now she longed for that feeling to return-  
  
For perhaps the first time in her short life, she truly felt what it was like to be her age. She was five, and alone, with only another five- year-old and no kind and caring adults to scoop her up, cradle her, and whisper in her ears that everything was going to be OK. Hardly idle flowed her tears now.  
  
"I want to go home. I want Mommy, and Daddy, and Navi, and Atahl. and I want my Auntie Aryll too, and Click."  
  
"I do, too. I want Dad, and I want Mom to come with me. And I want the rest of my family-Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Hayden, Uncle Oliver and Aunt Shala, and Perrin. Aunt Relina and Uncle Olerin. Anyone."  
  
"Me, too. Notice I mentioned Navi."  
  
"Even the Glowball would be a sight for sore eyes right about now."  
  
Posie prodded at Elaine's chest a little. She seemed to get the message-she set Posie down on the floor, who sat down in the corner. Despite that part of a room's infamousity for being dirty, it was the cleanest bit to be encountered anywhere. She scratched her head.  
  
"Well, for starters, we really need to think. We gotta get out of here and figure out where they took Daddy and Miss Naomi.-I mean, your mommy."  
  
"How're we gonna do that? I mean, the key to this cell is a part of the thing that put us in here!"  
  
"Moblin," Posie corrected.  
  
"I know, I know, I'm just. really upset. can't think straight." Elaine massaged her forehead.  
  
"Well, somewhere around here, there must be spares. What if one of the guards broke their claw? And what if it grew? I mean, when they carve their claws, there must be some key or mold they work from."  
  
"Good point." Elaine dashed up to the bars best she could across the slippery surface she had to deal with, leaning into them and squishing her face between two of them to view their surroundings. "So, assuming we can get a hold of that key and escape, what do we got to deal with the guards?"  
  
Posie inventoried herself quickly to make sure the Moblins hadn't taken any of her things. It didn't appear that they had, and since she was not tied up, they were not kept from her by some other means. "A very small sword, a very small shield, a very small bow with 30 very small arrows, a very small-oops, I mean, a normal-sized dagger and-do you still have that bag of magic powder?"  
  
"If the water in Lake Lolita didn't kill it, yeah," Elaine said, reaching into her pocket. The small satchel still retained moisture, likely held there by the sodden dust within. "I'm not really an expert with this stuff. I don't know if it's water-proof or not."  
  
Posie shook her head. "Don't think it is," she briefly answered, glum.  
  
"So cut the magic powder, then." Elaine sighed and pulled back the bag's drawstring, which stopped in its tracks thanks to the beads knotted at its ends. Turing it over, a large, congealed lump fell out of it on to the floor. It held a slight resemblance to gelatin powder, slightly moistened. Posie stepped in it and, just as she had suspected, did not turn into a turnip.  
  
"Now we only have my stuff and your dagger. d'you think we could stand up to a full-grown Moblin if we worked together?"  
  
Elaine liked optimism as much as the next person, but she had to force herself to be realistic. "No; if we managed to attract a guard's attention. we'd be dead before you could say 'Bite the bucket.'"  
  
"It's either 'Kick the bucket' or 'Bite the dust,'" Posie quipped, showing again her disregard for old adages and cliches.  
  
Elaine raised an eyebrow at Posie. "You're really strange, Pose. Reeeeeeally strange."  
  
Posie looked proud.  
  
She flew up from her corner, the shield on her back wailing in the darkness of the cell, sparks shrilling out along the metal/stone lines. She tried to stride in a determined, confident fashion, one that suggested she had power that she could call upon to aide her in a fight. She tried to radiate an aura that would put all around her-which currently consisted of Elaine and Elaine alone-in a state of mentality that suggested they-she- could be her own savior if she needed to be, and their breakout would be simpler than saying the words.  
  
Posie loped up to Elaine, giving her a smile of hope. "Do you have any idea what to do, Pose?" Elaine asked her.  
  
The smile vanished, swallowed up by an air of sobriety. "Not really, no. But I know we can think of something! And when we do, I'm ready, I'm willing, I'm confident, I'm-"  
  
Posie suddenly looked down at herself and then at the half-wall imprisoning them. Her face scanned up and down the bars; its expression suggested she had just been struck upside the head with a comet of inspiration from the hidden heavens. Those eyes of blade-blue sent ablaze their furnaces, as the feature for which she had so often been mocked saw a moment in which to ride the carousel of glory.  
  
"I'm small enough to step through the bars," she breathed, almost incredulously.  
  
**************************  
  
"Oh-fiduss," Link snapped at himself, trying to watch his language even though there was no one conscious around to offend. "Oh fiduss, oh fiduss, oh fiduss," he stamped about, setting deep bootprints that would likely remain in the cell's slime icing for decades to come. Apparently these Moblins that had captured them didn't take many prisoners-the carton- like chambers they had been shoved into even lacked the ominous wall skeleton the classic dungeons were known for. Of course, there could be several meanings to that first statement, many of them dubious.  
  
"C'mon, Nai," he nudged her with his foot. He dare not touch her body with his bare skin, in fear of finding it cold and ridged. "Y' gotta wake up. Nai. Nai! Goddesses, I'm sorry I doubted you. I."  
  
He stopped abruptly and knelt by her side, holding up his hands in a silent plea to the Goddesses to let this woman, who had gone to prove herself a truer friend than many had, live. He stood perfectly still, holding even his own lungs shut tight in hopes of hearing hers toiling, no matter how labored they might be. But his heart, pounding a fearsome signal against the inside of his throat, left only the sound of his own rushing blood through his ears.  
  
"Naomi. don't give me another reason to hate you by going and dying on me! That was the most noble thing I've ever seen anyone do. The least you could do for me now is survive!"  
  
Naomi was, in fact, quiet wide awake and as well as one could possibly be who'd had their scalp split open. Her head pounded something awful, but it didn't disrupt her thinking, which was swift and abrupt. She had come to shortly before the Moblins had entered their castle, but realized for safety reasons she had best still pretend to be K.O'ed until the cost was all clear. Though she had heard porkish footsteps slap away into the distance, she held back when Link began to rant in case he drew that big hunk of demon flesh back.  
  
But now she was surprised to hear genuine worry and distress in his voice over her state. It surprised her-she really didn't know he cared. Oh, she knew at one point he had been concerned for her well-being, but that had been before he'd found out what harridan she could be duress. But if he could put up with that and still end up fretful over her state-maybe the poor guy really was turning around in her favor.  
  
"Chill, Linky-boy. I'm OK." Her old and famous shell of greasiness and slop jumped back on to her personage as if dragged there by a magnet as she coiled herself up in a crunch and swept up, green mingling with the soft and cakey reds of her hair. She flicked a patch of unusually ghastly- smelling algae from her shoulder and hugged herself against the cold rock floor. "I was just listening to what you were saying."  
  
Link snapped back on a shocked reflex, sliding out of the way just snappily enough to avoid a faceful of Naomi's noisome locks. "Damn Gerudo! Why did you have to go and pretend to be all lifeless like that? You scared the living daylights out of me!"  
  
Naomi painted on her best victorious grin. "No use hidin' it, Linky- boy. I ain't fooled. You were sobbing like a baby over me-what did you say then that was particularly good? 'That was the most noble thing I've ever seen anyone do.'"  
  
"Well-" Link mumbled, towered over by the Gerudo's wit, "-It was. I mean, you don't even like us; at least, you pretend you don't-"  
  
"Heh! I didn't like you, anyway. But, you know-I don't really think you're half bad, Link. I really don't. I just don't think-well, that you're the smartest fellow on the planet. But I suppose-I mean, if you agree to put a little more thought into your actions-"  
  
"-And if you're not bih-whining about something every other second-"  
  
Naomi's hand jumped out in front of her with a smile. "Friends?"  
  
"If I'm in a good mood at the time." A steel-like gaze similar to what he had given her during what he had assumed was her moment of defiance. "OK, OK, friends no matter what mood I'm in. For as long as we can tolerate each other's presence."  
  
Not every day it was that a Gerudo and a Hylean shook hands. But there they were, shaking in mutual agreement, making the best of their deplorable situation and vowing to work together to get out of it, as well as as far away from it as they possibly could.  
  
"Ok, happy moment's over." Naomi jerked her hand back and shook it vigorously. Link bemusedly wondered if it was to get the "him" off of her hand or if it was to get her blood circulating through it again. In retrospect, he'd grasped on to it with rather more force than was needed. "Man, I should've stuck with the Moblin's story and followed you guys here in secret. I could've been with Elaine right now."  
  
"Elaine? What about me?"  
  
"Hey, you're important too, Linky-boy, but I originally did this for my daughter. And now I'm stuck in here, and she's down who-knows-where in this crazy construction."  
  
"Oh, dear Goddesses," Link suddenly stuttered as though it had only very suddenly dawned on him. "Posie. Ladies of the Heavens. Where could she be.?"  
  
"Well," Naomi stood up, "seeing as you and I had the same hijacker, and we're in the same cell, I'd say she's with Elaine wherever the shorter guy took 'em."  
  
"That doesn't help if we don't know where that is! This wasn't supposed to happen, dammit."  
  
"Well, did you think there was a chance that something like this might have occurred? I mean, if you did, and if you cared about you daughter's safety at all, I don't know why in heaven and Hyrule."  
  
Link's breath rippled, rubber-ball-bouncing across the stillness of their confinements. It was loud, heavy, and balefully threatening. Limply, he collapsed fully onto the floor, looking up at Naomi with Hell itself roaring infernos behind his eyes.  
  
"What. Did. You. Say," he demanded, in a reaper's tense and apocalyptic voice.  
  
"I said, I don't know why you'd want to set off of this little romp if you knew these things could happen, and you cared about Posie!"  
  
Link stood up by setting his feet down flat and snapping his knees back into place. He did not roll his torso, or shift his weight in any fashion. He never once took his gaze from hers and instant, head steady as if it were crafted from many multicolored pieces of marble. Jerkily, without any sort of warning signal, the statue sprung to life, flat palms striking brutally the flame mark on Naomi's left cheek.  
  
"You idiot!" she roared. "What the hell is your problem?!?! Am I not allowed to make suggestions? Comments? Anything?"  
  
"Never ever say things like that about me!" He made a swipe in an apparent attempt to choke her, but he came away instead with the lapel of her dirty purple blouse. "Don't you dare insinuate I don't do anything less than cherish Posie." With a snap of his wrist, he threw Naomi back forcefully. Against the slickness she was forced to battle over, she nearly tumbled back first into a puddle of septic-colored water.  
  
"I knew this was dangerous when the idea came to me! I knew it was dangerous when we started out. And yet I did it anyway. But don't think that means that I don't love her! Posie is my baby angel! My sweet little girl! Do you think I wanted this to happen?!?! Do-you-think-I would not guard her with my very life, and give it, if she were in trouble?!?!"  
  
Link was on the verge of foaming at the mouth, now screaming obscenities-in mixed Modern Hylean and Ancient-from the brinks of full- filled lungs. Sobbing a dry sob, he fell face first into the mucky floor, fists slamming with the force of Magic Hammers into the indelible fungal coat furrowed into the ground. And though Link had never before been brought to tears-by extreme happiness or extreme grief-his nose did drip a little as he whimpered. "I screwed up. I screwed up. I screwed up. this is terrible."  
  
"Hey, Link, man, I'm sorry. I didn't mean." Naomi attempted to bend down and look into Link's face, but it was too low. She settled for speaking soothingly to the back of his neck.  
  
"This shouldn't be happening. None of this. Posie shouldn't even exist. Goddesses this is all my fault."  
  
"What?" She recoiled. Her hands snapped shut so suddenly and on impulse she nearly speared herself with her too-long nails, not bitten enough to be nonexistent but enough so that they were ragged and sharp. "Link, you're talking crazy."  
  
"You're not calling me Linky-boy," her sniffled. "Go ahead, you know it's what you mean. because that's all I am, just a boy. still. I was way to young to have kids when Posie was born."  
  
"But Link, you." Naomi could hardly believe what she was hearing. "You love her! You said it yourself! Love her; cherish her! You. you. say, how old are you, anyway? I dunno, you look. late, maybe mid-twenties, that's not bad."  
  
He curled back up into a pathetic slump, balanced on his knees. "I'm twenty-four. Almost twenty-five; I turn in November." Solemnly, he looked up at her, every scar he'd ever garnered on his cheeks, forehead and chin standing out like the paths on a roadmap now in his dolor. "That would've made me nineteen when she was born. Nineteen. Too young, too stupid."  
  
Naomi had to admit that he did have a point, but she could make excuses galore. What about royalty? They got married off at fifteen and their first children were born when they were both at least two years younger than Link had been. And all of Link's scars certainly made him look several years older than he really was. "Well, I guess you're right about being young, but. I don't think you've been stupid." Now, in its most literal sense that was a deliberate lie, but in the current context, it was at least a part of a truth. Posie was a very smart, very able-bodied kid. Link had to be doing something right.  
  
"But."  
  
"Now, no buts now." I feel like I'm talking to a gigantic preschooler, Naomi inwardly chuckled. What an irony. At first, she was hesitant about making the move she considered, but figured, what the heck. We're officially friends now, and I guess, between friends, this doesn't mean anything. It's friendly.  
  
She hugged him and patted him on the back.  
  
Link's eyeballs could have jumped out of their sockets and done a two- step on Naomi's slightly fractured crown. "Look. I realize you've kind of got 20/20 hindsight going on, but I don't think you've messed up at much as you think you have. Posie adores you, Elaine adores you. heck, you're starting to grow on me; I mean, look at me!" She tossed herself back, arms spread wide open to accept and invisible(but enormous) gift. Apparently that was Link himself, because she dashed right back into squeezing him tight. "Here I am, hugging you like you're some kinda doll. As far as people go. you're one of the best guys ever there was, Link. You're not quite RJ, but, hey, not everyone can aspire to godlike status like that." She sniffed a little.  
  
"So I'm not godlike?" Something on his breath smelt of sarcasm. Good, he was lightening up a little.  
  
"Not a bit; and I've never known anyone who was! Now, are we get out of this cesspool and help our kids or are we just gonna sit around on our butts and rot?" Naomi held Link out at arm's length, staring directly into his face.  
  
"Dunno; gonna be difficult. after all, the guards are the keys."  
  
"So? We can do it, can't we?"  
  
Link jumped to his feet enthusiastically. "Oh, you bet we can! Link, Posie, Elaine and Naomi forever!"  
  
This made Naomi remember something. "Uhh, say," she wondered, head swerving befuddledly, "where'd your little fairy buddy get to?"  
  
****************************  
  
Navi didn't normally like swearing. Fairies were supposed to be dainty and elegant creatures; falling into common curses broke that stately image they liked to carry so high above themselves.  
  
Now, however, she let first thoughts take over. She screamed, "Fiduss!-"-the less friendly and more relieving Modern Hylean version-when something warm and sweaty pinned her to the wall.  
  
Quite contrary to these actions was the voice that tickled her ears and made her, if it was possible, more enraged. "Navi! Thank the Goddesses it's you! How'd you escape those pig-dog creeps?"  
  
"How'd I escape-Posie Cassandra Blade, how'd you escape?!?!"  
  
"Shh." Her metal sword shlinkd into the floor, when she stabbed it into a groove between flagstones to free up her right hand. She brought a finger of silence against her lips. "Quiet. I haven't seen any yet, but I bet this place is just crawling with more of those Moblins."  
  
"You didn't answer," Navi grumped, but this time in a much quieter tone.  
  
"The bars of the cell were far enough apart that I could slide out," she explained, releasing the fairy to let her hover just above her head. "I asked first anyway, so now you owe me an explanation." Posie grabbed her sword up with a few nerve-splitting shrieks, and poked at the air where Navi had been before she had dived out of the way.  
  
"Well, having more sensitive ears than even the keenest Hylean," Navi began on a little brag, complete with hand-on-heart gesture, "I was woken by the Sloblins rustling about in a nearby shrub. I tried to wake up your father, but nooooo, he sleeps like a log. So I dimmed my light and hunkered down in the grass where I could watch without being seen, and followed you here. Only, I couldn't get inside at first because they slammed the portcullis shut on me."  
  
Navi was just about to re-word that last sentence so Posie could understand, until she recalled that a great deal of Posie's favorite book and novel was set around castles. Posie knew what a portcullis was. "Couldn't you have just flown through the grate? I mean, it couldn't have been that small, could it?"  
  
"Um, well," Navi blushed. "It wasn't. I, ah, didn't think of that at first." Before she'd even begun, Posie had figured her out and was deeply rolling her eyes. "So, well, I finally figured out I could. And did. But I'd kind of lost you guys, so I've been wandering about here looking for you all."  
  
"Well, you're pretty close," Posie informed her, firing a hitchhiker thumb over her back and down the stretched-like-rubber hall. "We're just down the hall a ways here. We're at the very end-don't know if Elaine can hear us, but I'll bet she sees you. You're kinda hard to miss-hint hint?"  
  
"Oh." Posie likely had no desire to be tossed back into that cell again, even though she could easily escape. If the guards found her and managed to catch her, they'd probably tie her up this time. Navi dropped her light, becoming a small, humanoid shape wheeling in the blackness of the hall. Down by the very last chamber-the one Elaine was still contained in-there was a single, fluttering torch.  
  
"So what are you doing?"  
  
"Looking for a spare key," Posie whispered, head jerking back and forth along the walls, systematically scanning the crannies and heights for any sort of dull metal gleam that wasn't just another empty torch bracket. "You help. Keep a lookout for me, and maybe check up in those empty torch. thingies." Posie spiraled her wrist, even though her dribbling sentence didn't exactly roll off her tongue. "Just do what you can, please?"  
  
"Aren't you going to tell the other half of your dynamic duo y' found me?"  
  
"Actually, you do that first. Thanks." Then Posie went down on her stomach to inspect all of the individual stones cobbling the floor, in case one of them was loose and hid behind their means of release. Even though she knew that Moblins were a dull sort who kept their most valuable objects in totally obvious places, she figured in couldn't hurt to check in case this particular breed had chanced to evolve a little.  
  
Sure, why not? Navi shrugged. She hadn't really formulated any stunning plans of her own while she'd fumbled around in the dark; anything to do was better than a flat-out nothing. Zipping down the hall at the quickest pace she could manage without exhausting all her strength in a single sprint, Navi banged off of empty cages and unkempt walls to where Elaine peered, convict-like, from between the poles of her prison. Her demeanor significantly kindled up when the fairy flew up into her face-Wow, someone's actually happy to see me for once, she inwardly chortled.  
  
"Navi! You're here! You made it!"  
  
"Yeah, well. couldn't just leave ya all here alone, could I?"  
  
"Wouldn't put it past you."  
  
"Umm" was the best response Navi could muster to that.  
  
"So, has Pose had any luck finding us a way out of here?"  
  
The little fairy shook her head; Elaine frowned. "Actually, I was just going to help her look up in the torches for a key or something. You seen anything that looks suspicious?"  
  
Elaine's eyes narrowed. "This whole place is suspicious," she spat. "At least the castle dungeons are clean and not covered in slime! .Err, or so I've been told. I've never actually been there. Thank goodness."  
  
Navi harrumphed. "I should hope not!" she trilled with her hands to her hips. Elaine shrugged at it and bent down, greasing the front of her dress with various unsavory algae as she scraped aside handfuls of the muck and peered deeply into any far-reaching cracks in the floor.  
  
Navi cocked her head inquisitively at her. "What are you doing?"  
  
Elaine spared a moment to look up. "Well, gotta do my part, don't I? I'm helping look for a key."  
  
"But why would the Moblins hide a key inside one of the cells?"  
  
"Because." She paused, flicking a bit of green stuff off of a fishy- looking roll on the ground. It turned out to be a twig, dragged in who knows when. But she'd been lying down on the ground earlier; it could've come from her hair. ".They're stupid."  
  
Navi looked skyward, regardless of there not being any sky to look at. Face turning a color similar to puce under the yellow-and-orange light tossed around by the torch, she paraded her best "I-knew-that" look. Which she did, though she had perhaps been stupider in failing to recall it. "Good point."  
  
*****************************  
  
"Did you hear that?"  
  
"Hear what?"  
  
Naomi imitated Link, curling up against the floor and lending an ear to the gloppy, chill-stricken stone. She thought she could feel something crawling up inside of it. Desperately hoping her brain was not about to be intruded upon by a slime mold, she kept silence, attempting to pick up on whatever the hero had tuned in to. But all she could sense were the vibrations her own body pulsed into the floor-breath, heartbeat, mild nervous tremors-and besides, the bigger ears of the Hyleans gave them more finely-honed hearing than the rounded ears of the Gerudo provided.  
  
"Link, I don't. hear anything."  
  
"I know I just heard Navi down there. I'd know her voice screaming anywhere."  
  
"What'd she say?"  
  
"Uh." He conveyed, quite as politely as he could, exactly what Navi had said. Naomi cringed and replied with an, "Ouch. D'you think one of the Moblin's got her."  
  
"No." Link repositioned himself along the floor, skittering about with his hind legs and bracing himself with his front. One whole side of his bangs became roughly the same color as Saria's hair and the path his head had taken left a visible streak. "Ahh. She got pinned by Posie. Remind me to strangle her for using language like that around my kid, will ya?"  
  
"No problem." Naomi decided that, since she was deaf as a snake through their prison's ground, she didn't need to make a fool of herself any longer. Besides, it was uncomfortable, being tensed like a cat like that. She pulled herself upright, into a more pleasurable position, cross- legged and content to observe her partner scrambling around through the verdant mess they were entrapped in.  
  
"Hey. Posie's free!" Link grinned broadly, jerking his head up in a flash to beam at Naomi before he returned to his affectionate eavesdropping. "Good going, kid!" And then, for Naomi's sake, he relayed, "I guess she was small enough to slip through the bars on these cells. Ha ha ha!"  
  
"What about Elaine?" Naomi quickly asked when she realized that Posie had gotten out. "Do you hear her?"  
  
"Nooo." He flipped his head over to get a good listen in on his other ear, as if he was cooking his head and wanted to get it evenly browned on both sides. "Wait. Hmmm. 'Cording to Posie, she's still in their cell, which is at the end of the hall down on the floor below us."  
  
"Sure it's the floor right below us? Are you positive?" Naomi was anxious to get definitive answers.  
  
"Look, Naomi, my hearing's good but it's not that good," he said, with a joking sort of adamancy. "I couldn't hear them through more than three feet of concrete, and that's only because they're talking loud. Gahdesses, I wish they'd quiet down. they're going to bring the guards blaring the horns of Hell!"  
  
"Well, nothing much we can do about it, Linky-boy. Unless you'd like to have a shout at 'em and tell 'em to shut up."  
  
"No way, Nai-oh-may," he rolled around on his tongue. "I like my head right where it is on my shoulders, thanks."  
  
"Hmmm. Well, there's gotta be something. aside from just waiting here for Posie or Navi to find us. Huh. I guess I can say, for starters."  
  
"For starters what?" Link was intrigued. He got back up into a more proper pedestal on his knees so he could peer directly at his Gerudian friend.  
  
"For starters, you could never, ever call me Nai-oh-may like that again."  
  
******************************  
  
"No luck?"  
  
Posie shrugged. From head to toe she was covered in patches of green glop, glommed from the walls and floor as she perused their niches for an aid to their breakout. She had a sort of fuzzy, moldy smell that would have been petrifying had it not been under her nose so long she'd come to ignore it. "Navi looked up in all the torch holders, and I searched all of the ground. Nothing, nada, zip, zilch." She soughed fully and streaked her fingers through her bangs. Normally, they were puffy; now they looked like spikes since the sludge had cemented them in a stable formation.  
  
"This is wonderful," Elaine mumbled in a defeated fashion. "And there's nothing in here. did you try the other cells?"  
  
"I gave 'em a good once-over," Navi said. "They're all empty. Looks like our only option would be to sweetalk one of the Moblins into opening the doors and letting us out. you out," she corrected. Posie and her didn't exactly have those same imprisonment issues as Elaine.  
  
"Or kill it," Posie deadpanned. What with the vileness of those horrible, mephitic creatures, the option didn't quite dismay her as much as it would have for some other being. They were as fetid and awful as it was possible to be.  
  
"With a fifteen-inch little girl and a fairy. Real great salvo we've got here!"  
  
Elaine shifted her feet. "Uhh, Pose."  
  
"No, she got me too," and Posie held up her hands, one in a fist and the other spread wide. She pulled in her thumb on the open palm and stuck it out on her bunched mitt. They'd both lost points and Navi had scored on them in the thesaurus war. "Navi, what does 'salvo' mean.?"  
  
"Barrage! Fusillade! OK, so it means shooting a lot of stuff, but I'm using it here to mean our artillery. A minor malapropism. Gimmie a break!"  
  
"Mal. a. prop."  
  
"I misused the word. OK? Not like you don't do it."  
  
Posie grumbled "No need to be so testy" disdainfully while she hugged herself closely. It was rather chilly in the freakish façade, and the wind blew in the disheartening smell of rain from one of the small slats of windows. The wet ground was still busy releasing its gamy scents. "Let's see. last night, at this time, we were running from Gerudos."  
  
"Our parents were running while they. carried. meep," Elaine started boldly and them squeaked at her cutting off. Posie had fired her a volley so fiery it ought to have blackened her face to a crisp. Despite having reprimanded Navi for being in this very mood and showing it, Posie was teetering at an edge and did not want to be corrected.  
  
"And now, our problem is not being able to run anywhere." She began to pace in front of the cage that had once tried to hold her, her friend's eyes dutifully following her steady back-and-forth march.  
  
"Could be worse."  
  
Those were always the infamous last words.  
  
***************************  
  
"So you can't hear anything more."  
  
"No-oope." Naomi didn't know where Link was suddenly getting this tendency to roll the syllables of his speech from, but it was starting to- no, had long since driven her nuts. "There was some scraping, Posie and Navi said a couple things to each other, then they went away."  
  
Suddenly seized by a panicky thought, Naomi asked, "Were they-taken?"  
  
"Well, I know they walked away OK. but they're beyond my earshot now, so if something were to happen, I wouldn't have any idea."  
  
"Thank you for making me feel so much better, Link!" Naomi admonished. "You're not the only one with a kid trapped down there, you know! How is it you act so calm?"  
  
"I hold the Piece of Courage, Naomi," he said with crossed arms. "It helps me find the strength within myself not to panic, no matter how bad things may get."  
  
Oddly playfully for such a macabre setting, she punched him in the shoulder(gently). "Oh yeah? Well then, what was that expression on your face back when we were running from my sisters back in the desert?"  
  
"O.K. so maybe this thing doesn't work 24-7." he tumbled over as he massaged the area of his limb she'd smacked. Much harder than she'd probably originally thought.  
  
Forgetting all of her troubles for a few blissful seconds, Naomi laughed, making the bricks around them shudder as a force tumbled into them they felt cripplingly weakened by. "Link Hiro Blade, I think you're full of hot air."  
  
"Nukira 'Naomi' Scythebearer, I think you're a pain in the rear."  
  
"What're friends for?"  
  
She leapt up and dove to tackle him. With the lubrication of the slime on his side, Link slid out of the way and made her eat a faceful of scum. "If all friends are like you," he chuckled, "not a whole gliorion lot."  
  
******************************  
Despite what the author has mentioned before, there are a number of famous last words. Aside from "Could be worse," there are also, "What's the worst that could happen?" and, "Don't worry," and, "I have an idea!" As it would so happen, all four of these words came into play during the conversation that followed Elaine's original statement of the first.  
  
After a few minutes of silent rumination, musing away their predicament beneath the single torch, Posie leapt up. Loudly, she proclaimed, "I have an idea!"  
  
Elaine stuck her head as far as it would go through the bars, even though it was not necessary to help her listen. "What is it?"  
  
Posie marched up into Elaine's face with gusto. "Well," she began, taking a deep starting breath, "See, the Moblin's keys are part of their bodies. Right?"  
  
"Right."  
  
"And we're not going to be able to talk one into letting us out, and with our current army, we're not exactly going to be able to take one down, right?"  
  
"Right."  
  
"So we'll have to trick one into setting us free! Right?"  
  
Elaine pulled her face back from between the steel strips and shook it. "Not right. How do we go about this?"  
  
"Way I see it, it's simple. First, Navi will go off and find a Moblin stalking the halls somewhere, and lead me to it. Then, when it comes up to chase me, I'm going to tell it to stop, real calm-like, and tell it I'm a powerful mage who has the power to make all its wishes come true."  
  
"Uhh, Pose, I hate to burst your bubble, but you said it yourself! You can call up a couple pretty green lights and that's it. How will that help?"  
  
"Well, see, Navi agreed to help me. I'll tell it first that I use my magic to make me look youthful and small, and I'll wave my hands, say some mystic words. that sort of stuff. Moblins aren't big on magic, so it ought to fool it. And Navi will-I'm gonna hate this part, but what has to be done- take some of my magic from me and conjure an illusion of a dragon or something big like that."  
  
"Aaaaand.?"  
  
"I'll tell it I came here because I felt this place was in great danger. See, the roof's about to come down, and crush everyone inside of it." When Elaine's eyes widened in terror, Posie quickly rushed in to reassure her: "Don't worry, it's only the story I'm gonna tell it! Anyway, I'll say that there's so much pressure forcing this thing to break that even I can't stop it all. but if I came to the weakest spot in the entire ceiling and had a pair of strong Moblin arms hold it up for a little bit while I fetched my wizardly friends."  
  
"Ooooh!" Dawn came to Elaine's eyes. "The old 'Falling Roof' trick. Am I correct in guessing that the 'weak spot' would be right here in this cell?"  
  
"He'd have to open it up to get in! And you could sneak out of here while I kept up some cheerful banter with our sucker. So tell me, is that not a perfect plan?"  
  
"It's not a perfect plan," Navi told them. "I'll help you with this whole scheme, but even if Moblins are thicker than Atahl's blackberry custard, I have my doubts about this."  
  
Posie shrugged, "What's the worst that could happen? Don't worry!"  
  
"Oh, I will," Navi sighed. "I will."  
  
"I've never had Atahl's blackberry custard before," Posie hummed to herself aloud. "Is it really that thick?"  
  
"So thick you could use it as glue, kiddo," Navi snipped. "Now, hush. I've found our pigeon; make sure he doesn't hear you before we get to him."  
  
"Sorry."  
  
Bunched up like a caterpillar, Posie slunk along the mostly dark corridors, only rarely lit at intervals by a torch that spat waxy smoke. That stuff smelt almost as bad as the creatures that had set the fires bearing it! Almost. But not quite. Her nostrils were still being assaulted with an odiferous Moblin stench, enough to drive the oil-soaked flames out.  
  
Up in the hall ahead of her, a proud young Moblin marched, his fur the sleek blue-gray that dignified the nobles of his culture. It would have gleamed in many pretty, pearly iridescent shades had any effort been put into keeping it clean. However, the coat belonged to a creature without even the merest fixation on hygiene, so instead, it had all the luster of a distant, dark storm cloud. Two gnawed leather straps spanned his massive chest, hooks on their backs supporting a thick, enameled shield fully as tall as Link was. Miniaturized on his belt was a cold, beige Magic Hammer, a formidable secondary weapon next to his combination axe-spear he was tapping along.  
  
Posie gulped a little at the sight of him. If Randy was tall among men, this Moblin was tall among monsters-at least fourteen of them in height, if not more. Even the senior officer that had kidnapped her father and Elaine's mother was dwarfed by the creature a good two feet. Being on her own a slight 15 inches, she was going to have to talk bigger than she ever had before in order to seem intimidating, and to fool the guard into thinking she was much, much older than she really was. And that meant breaking out her greatest weapon-the massive vocabulary and pretentious airs.  
  
"Ahem!" She deeply cleared her throat. "Good sir-I say, my dear fellow! Mayest I have a word; a small chat, if thou wouldst?"  
  
Talk about unconvincing. She didn't sound pompous, she just sounded like someone overly repetitive with a compulsive need to be sublimely beyond polite. Still, the uncultured beast put a brake on his pace and jutted his dark gaze into Posie-it was do or die; she would have to try harder.  
  
"Yes. Thy friend. So good of thou to listen."  
  
"Wuh youse doin' 'ere, little gurl?"  
  
"'Little girl?' Oh, thou meanest my disguise. well, dear comrade, I am actually a mage of great magicks from an immense faraway. fiefdom," Posie said, searching her mind at the last word for the most obscure governing system she could think of. Though she wasn't sure there were any feudal states left in Ebridane, she didn't expect the Moblin to know his geography. "I chose to use my awesome powers to remain eternally youthful, as it were, and, in all perfect honestly, I rather relish being of a miniscule frame, as it makes getting under my desk for lost scrolls all the simpler. No, I am really several hundred years old. I was certainly already an old woman when what we now call Year 1 was put into effect!"  
  
The guard tilted his head in a perplexed manner. If he was already flummoxed, perhaps this trick would be allowed to go off without a hitch. "Wuhs youse name?"  
  
"For shame! Thou know'st me not? Well then, my orcish friend, know now that the great enchantress, P-rosemetè Ca-iyanhra Castor stands afore thee!"  
  
"Prosemetè wah? Wuhs youse sayin'? I don't un'nerstan youse none."  
  
"Ah, it matters not. Perhaps thy curiosities and bewilderments would be better dispellèd with a simple enactment of one of my most powerful spells. .Let's see, what is impressive yet none too taxing? Hmm. Perhaps, my dear Mobish friend, thou hast seen a dragon before?"  
  
"Dragon? Nuh-uh. Only heard stories, 'n' never seen no pigtures. Youse gonna gall a dragon?"  
  
He'd never seen a true dragon before? Perfect. Navi could effectively call to being an illusion of any oversized, spiky reptile. Posie looked behind her to see if the fairy had caught this tip-she had, and nodded to indicate that their thoughts drifted down the same river. Even if the overdeveloped pig had seen a wyrm before, any other sort of image Navi could dream up would likely fool him. He'd likely believe a blue bird covered in cotton-puff clouds was a ferocious dragon if Posie told him it was. Hook, line, and sinker.  
  
"Call a dragon? Call a dragon? Thou would'st set to me such a trivial, menial task? I was thinking more something along the lines of channeling a great wyrm's spirit and turning my very self into a terrifying Naga. but clearly, thy simpleton mind would be satisfied with some simple conjured beast. Very well. Now, stand back as I chant the mystic words."  
  
Navi readied herself, dashing around vigorously as she etched an invisible magic transfer line from herself to Posie. It was not a difficult or taxing work and would take a very short amount of time, but Posie could speak quickly, and once she said the code-words-"Tomato, toe-mah-toe"-Navi would have to activate the spell.  
  
"Abracadabra, Alakazam! Peeka-shu grumba gruntling! Wallawallawashington! Ehlvees levees! Rekard af yerk gaiv bahtl en vayhn! Tomato, toe-mah-toe!"  
  
It was perhaps the most esoteric collection of "magic words" ever assembled, consisting of a number of familiar phrases Navi and Posie knew mispronounced in enough of a way to sound mystical. But it worked-the Moblin screwed up his face a little attempting to fathom the meaning of these twisted sounds, while watching the equally absurd hand movements Posie was making to accompany her speech. When Navi received her cue, she performed the familiar mental tug on her drain-string-and she cast the spell that would make an enormous magical lizard appear directly behind them.  
  
Posie had expecting a feeling to cut through her chest exactly like it had the last time she had been tapped, but apparently, Navi didn't need as much extra magic for this simple specter than she had needed to move herself, five other persons, and one decrepit old log to the middle of the lake. There was a mild twinge in her lungs and she felt slightly breathless, but it was nothing compared to the excruciating pain that had nearly ripped her apart before.  
  
Quite suddenly, a dragon appeared in the middle of the hallway.  
  
Navi had performed one bag-up job of a mirage too; the creature she called into being was a dark purple, serpentine beast with yellow and crimson bands decorating its midnight-sky face like war paint. It had bulbous, multifaceted eyes similar to those of the famous monster Volvagia; its six muscular legs supported a mass of floating, undulating coils. Ivory spirals like a pair of twin green unicorn horns sprouted from behind enormous, flicking dragon ears. Its head was nearly as big was the Moblin himself was, and its body ran off into the shadows down the hall, though its tail was just barely visible. It had three rows of shark-like pure white teeth inside its humid, sticky maw.  
  
Of course, the dragon was of some completely made-up species, but it was certainly everything that a really terrifying dragon ought to be. The verdant, mossy tuft at the end of its tail flicked menacingly as it eyed the Moblin with ravenous hunger, steam snorting out of its nostrils.  
  
It looks awesome, Navi; good going, Posie mouthed at her glowing companion. Normally, a compliment from one of her least-favorite people would mean nothing to Navi, but the fairy looked as if she really enjoyed it. Her face radiated a light not entirely a result of fay magic in that moment.  
  
"Woah! Dat. dat's a dragon! Uhh, please 'ell it not ter eat me, Ms. Sorsruss."  
  
Posie turned around, dramatically drawing her sword. Sweeping it across what would have been one of the most tender spots on a real dragon- its face-she cried, "Foul wyrm, I banish thee!" Navi's reflexes were not even a second behind Posie's; she quickly contorted the image into shirking back from the blow and trickling small amounts of blood across the path of the cut. Their sucker was luckily dull enough not to notice that his "mage's" sword had gone straight into the "monster" instead of simply grazing the front. Obediently obeying its mistress, the illusion gave a squawking howl of reverence before bursting into a million shadow particles and vanishing.  
  
Laxing into her typical routine on her few moments of relief that everything had gone well, Posie asked, "So, are you convinced yet?" This did not sound overtly magical, but the Moblin didn't care. He seemed to be in a state of shock. "Uh. uh. dat was a dragon! But dey's saying dere no dragons 'round here. uhh, I ain't never seen a dragon."  
  
Picking up her character again, Posie nudged the huge, furry demon in the big toe. "Thou art ignoring me, my most odiferous comrade," hoping the hidden insult slid right under the Moblin's nose. So to speak. "My proof of my powers has been presented mostly plainly. Now wilt thou listen to the words I have to say to thee?"  
  
"Youse wanted ter say somethin's ter me?" The slightly thick guard could hardly believe this insanely powerful magical being had actually been looking for him.  
  
"I seek the aid of thy burly arms; thy chiseled physique and nimble form," rattled of Posie, making quick poetry of simple prose. Although she was very fond of her books, Posie never imagined that being well-read would come in so handy when her life was in danger. "Would'st thou lend thy body to my cause?"  
  
"Wuh youse wantin'?" Typical Moblin. Find out what they were being cowed into first, then find out what was in it for them. How predictable.  
  
"Ah, my dear, friend, 'tis but a bit of tragedy in itself, is it not?" Posie clamped her hands together like a stately, solemn priest, attempting to look as grave and somber as possible in relating her "news." "An ominous herald I bring thee, for thy life, and all the lives surrounding thee, are imperiled most pressingly! That very roof, which thou regard'st as stoic and stalwart as the sun itself, is about to come crushing down on thy very heads!" Posie noticed that she was saying thy an awful lot, but her Old English was fractured at best and she didn't know any other words for something like your. It would have to do-besides, who was going to notice? Their chump?  
  
"Wuuuh?" Luckily, this seemed to invoke a reaction in the trundling guard, because he stood up at his full height and looked around neurotically. He even checked over his shoulder when he felt a gust of hot air there, wondering if Navi's fake dragon was perhaps back. It was actually little more than his own skin, prickling at nothing out of sheer nerves. "Wuh youse mean, dat da roof's gunna gom' grushin' down on usses?"  
  
"Alack, thou that has built this structure hast not put all his effort into it, for the supports grow weak and convex bends the stone! If thou dost not act, thou mayest find tomorrow morning to be sleeping with a halo of stones 'round thy head! And, alas, my magicks let alone are not enough to stop this ceiling from coming down on its masters. .Though. I hast been pondering, and I hast seen it that a strong young Moblin might put his palms to the loosest spot and stop the great avalanche of stones from coming down before I may fetch my wizardly friends. Dost thou agree to assist?"  
  
Not wanting to get beaned in the head with one of the heavy cement bricks, the Moblin quickly agreed with Posie's plan and followed her and Navi back to the cell where Elaine was held captive, several hallways down. The fortress was built in a very confusing manner that made it seem possible to make five right angle turns on one level, but in reality the floors were built into a very clever and gentle spiral that accomplished the illusion. Magic, though it certainly could have garnered the same effect, was not part of it.  
  
When Posie told their pigeon that the weakest point of the entire roof was right there in that prison cell, her was expedient to open it and focused enough in his single-mindedness not to noticed when Elaine slipped past his legs into the open, and quickly and neatly relieved him of his prized Magic Hammer. Bracing his sturdy arms against the figure, he smiled and nodded as Posie scampered off in the direction Elaine had followed, briskly reassuring him that she would soon be back with a squadron of wizards to fix their plight.  
  
It was a long, long time-well after sunrise that morning-before he realized he'd been duped.  
  
****************************  
  
Backs to the wall, Posie, Elaine, and Navi shuffled silently as possible down the wide corridors of the Moblin fortress, eyes pricked keen and ears opened wide to catch the slightest hints of movement. Their every step quavered with paranoia, deathly frightened that their ruse had been found out by their chosen guard or one of his peers. Posie kept her weapon drawn at all times, and Elaine had pocketed her knife in favor of the Magic Hammer she'd managed to steal off the evil creature. It felt light in the hands that wielded it, but it would prove a mighty bludgeon versus an enemy- one they hopefully did not encounter. Their plan, if such were to happen, was to have Navi blind it in a flash of light while Posie did her usual job of slicing open its ankles. Elaine would smash its toes. Then they'd run as far away as they possibly could, following the spiral of the fort upward until they(hopefully) found stairs to its roof so they could survey their location.  
  
Around the cusp of the corner they were fast approaching, Posie heard a scuffling noise. At the heard of the parade, she put her empty left behind her, "Shhh"-ing her two companions. Navi dimmed her brilliant white light to a gentle, barely visible orange.  
  
A few whispers of a familiar voice ebbed out around them. It was hasty and panicked, pacing back and forth over the wet limestone foundation. "OK, so we know that somewhere, in here, they've got a big monster that can roar reeeal loud. What do we do about that thing once we get out?"  
  
"Mom!" Elaine joyfully squeaked, her voice so high-pitched from the excitement and the cloying hold of newly-forming bliss tears that it wouldn't have mattered if she remembered to whisper. "That's Mom! Pose, she's OK!"  
  
"Sounds like she heard my dragon and thought it was genuine. Guess I put a bit too much oomph into that one..." Navi put one hand to the oozing wall, poised to listen.  
  
"Well, whatever it is, it can't be much wider than these hallways, so giving a rough estimate of it's size. I'd say I could handle it pretty easily; it'd probably be around sixteen feet high and probably, oh, fifty feet long."  
  
"Daddy!" Posie happily chirped while Naomi squawked, "That's your idea of easy?!"  
  
Link bantered something in return about it all being a matter of perspective while Navi dashed up and bounced up and down a few scant inches from Posie's face. "Well, let's not just stand here awaiting for them to come to us! C'mon, what're we waiting for?"  
  
"Well." drawled Posie, ".How're we s'pposed to let them out? We still don't have a key."  
  
"No, but we've got a Magic Hammer and that's almost as good," whipped Navi. "We can smash that lock in an instant with that thing."  
  
"OK, then." Posie looked over her shoulder. "Let's move, Elaine!"  
  
Down in the cell, Link's head jumped up. "Hey, wait! I thought I just heard Posie!"  
  
"Yeah. only the funny thing is, this time, so did I! And was she talking to Elaine?"  
  
The both of them rushed up to the bars preventing their escape, the cold steel pressing into their faces as their eyes attempted to survey their surroundings without being able to turn their heads. A tell-tale orange speckle that might have been the flame of a torch crept along the messy stone walls, and at first the two of them thought they might have been mistaken and it was only their minds drumming hope out of some approaching Moblin's mutterings. But when the light upped its ante to a glimmering white, and when it source-the tiny, fluttering human body-came over the bend, their spirits rose again.  
  
"Navi?"  
  
In the flooding white light, a hundred golden highlights came alive in the tiny, straw-colored head that followed the shimmering fay person.  
  
"Posie!"  
  
"Don't worry, Daddy," she heralded. "We're gonna get you and Miss Naomi out of there! Elaine grabbed a-"  
  
"Elaine! Where is she?"  
  
"I'm right here, Mom," Elaine quelled her anxious mother's soul as she brought up the tail end of the chain.  
  
Posie made a small check to assure herself Elaine really was there, even if her voice and Naomi's reaction had confirmed it. Then she re- fixated herself on Link, to finish her explanation. "As I was saying. Elaine grabbed a Magic Hammer from the Moblin we tricked into opening the cell for us, so we should be able to get you out of there!"  
  
"Wow! How'd you guys manage to fox your way out of that one? That's pretty impressive," Naomi said with deep pride, despite the fact the even a normal five-year-old was probably smarter than your average Moblin.  
  
"Posie actually had a pretty good idea-we fooled one of the guards into thinking she was a mage, and I borrowed some of her magic to conjure a huge dragon illusion."  
  
"Was that the roaring sound we heard?" Link asked, with a raised eyebrow. "Must've been a pretty big illusion; I'd think after your previous experiences you wouldn't want to share any more of your magic, kid."  
  
"Well, it was only an illusion, after all," Posie said, with a sort of "that-didn't-hurt" smugness other children might display after enduring a shot. "Navi didn't have to borrow too much magic, after all. It barely stung."  
  
"I guess that it probably helped since you willingly lent it. Anyway, so you made him think you were a big powerful mage. So then what did you do?"  
  
"Well, then I-we, Navi and I-convinced him that the roof was going to fall, but if he held up the one spot where it was weakest in our cell-"  
  
"Ho-lee Hiploops," whistled Naomi appreciatively, "those gorillas really are dumb. The oldest trick in the book."  
  
"And he fell for it," Elaine finished out loud what they were all thinking. "He's probably still in there, grinning his head off and thinking he's some sort of big hero. Helping to save all his little buddies."  
  
"Thank goodness he did, too! It's a miracle they didn't kill any of us. They were definitely after us. me, at least. The two of you-"-he looked at the two little girls-"-were clearly expendable. They weren't expecting you, but that's license to slaughter in their books."  
  
"My back's smiling and nodding right along with you, Mr. B," Elaine said while running her fingers over her shallow-but-ugly puncture wounds.  
  
"I'm really sorry, guys," Link sighed apologetically. "It's all my fault we're in this mess. Look, if it's all right with you guys. I mean, this little escapade's really taught me my lesson about dashing off on adventures like this. So I was hoping you wouldn't take it the hard way if, once we got out of here, we just. went home."  
  
"It's alright with me, Daddy," Posie nodded. "I'll just have to work harder at the spinning slash, I guess. I'll get it eventually, you know."  
  
"Hey," he shrugged, "not like it was a complete loss, was it? We had fun, didn't we? We helped out the Zoras, met a couple of new friends, got ourselves scared silly just enough to be exhilarated."  
  
"And what am I, Lyonel sweat?" Naomi barked bitterly.  
  
"And of course we rescued Naomi," Link grinned. "And, I daresay, made your dad a very happy man," Link said to Elaine.  
  
"RJ." Naomi swooned. "I can't believe I'm finally going to be seeing him again after so many years."  
  
"You won't be seeing anyone if we don't stop the chitchat and get to work getting out of here," snipped Navi. "Elaine.?"  
  
The child nodded, knowing her job without having it spoken aloud. She approached the bars of the prison with a deep excitement welling up in her chest, filling up her heart with gusto. Tossing the mallet of her Hammer above her head, she bade Link and Naomi to "Stay back" while she unleashed its power. Once they were out of harm's way, she brought down the weapon with an eager whistle against the offending lock. It near disintegrated when she hit it, sparks erupting from the point of collision.  
  
Stepping up delicately, Link tossed open the cell's door. He brushed his hands together, sweeping off the rust that had rubbed off on him from the door. "Thanks, Elaine," he praised her. "Now, I think it's time we played ourselves home, eh, crew?"  
  
".'Play ourselves.?'"  
  
"Music magic," Posie told Naomi. "Some melodies are directly connected to places, and by playing them on a magic instrument of some kind, you can teleport there. It's kind of uncomfortable, but it's quick."  
  
"Thanks for sparing me the explanation," Link mumbled as he became absorbed in searching his backpack for his Ocarina. Navi looked curtly in Posie's direction, as the latter had clearly stolen the former's thunder away from her.  
  
"Funny," Link spoke only half to himself, "I coulda sworn I had my Ocarina in this pouch last. Maybe I moved it and forgot. I'll check here then."  
  
He closed the flap he had been picking through and began to rummage in the one in front of it. He pushed aside various heaps of junk in hopes of locating the pearly blue sweet potato, but it did not appear to be under any of the things kept in that part of his knapsack.  
  
"Ok, it's not in there. Must be in here!"  
  
He pulled out the few things in some of the side flaps to no avail.  
  
"Umm. OK! Not there either! It has to be, then."  
  
He tried several of the few pouches left, getting some of the wonderful delights cooked up for them in the feral-Zora King's kitchens, but no Ocarina.  
  
Link looked reckless not to let the desperate truth set in, but even with repeated perusing of the various parts of his traveling pack he could not deny the inevitable. His Ocarina was gone. 


	15. From The Ashes

((CAN: This is it, folks! The moment of truth, the moment you've all been waiting for—the moment Twinrova's Plan is revealed! As if you didn't already know. Oh yeah. I also warn you, it gets kind of gross in this chapter, what with morbidity and spewing blood and a dead guy and all. In fact, I'm now looking back on this chapter, reading through it as I usually do once finished. And I must say—woah. I did NOT write all of this. I'm reading through it, and openly cringing at some parts, and thinking—"Wow, I seriously typed down this awful stuff?" I think I might have been channeling Edgar Allen Poe or something—he wrote a lot of disgusting things. Still you gotta admit, it IS effective and chilling! Juuust to make sure we're clear on that.))

((To the FF.net-ers, by the way: I'm trying something new with this now, uploading in HTML format. Oooh! Fancy! Let's see if this works like it oughta…)) 

Spinning Slash, Chapter 15: From The Ashes

Gone. Gone, like the trickles of a breeze on a muggy summer day. Gone, like a fly in the midst of a convention of frogs. Gone, like vivid dream upon the dreamer's waking. 

Link did not want to let it be real. He wanted to blink a few times—maybe rub his eyes to free them of any dust and grime that may be clouding them—and open them to find his beautiful blue Ocarina staring him back in the face. He wanted it so badly, but he knew it would not happen. He felt that, if only he could not say it, it would not be so—but had that strategy ever worked before? Very recently, he had said that they were not lost, even though they clearly were. Less recently, he had told himself he was close to finding the answer to Posie's problem in the various books in the library back home, but it he had been nowhere near any such answer. And, such a very long time ago it seemed, and perhaps six years was quite an amount—he had not admitted he loved Saria in her new, more grown-up form when all of that magic had gone awry, but… 

Nothing had ever brought him closer to the truth of real, genuine tears. He sunk down on to his knees, not finding the strength left anywhere in either his body or his heart to do much beyond such. His arms flew out toward Posie, clutching her close to his chest. Scratchy, belied with the uncommon age beyond reality many Blades seemed to possess, his voice whispered: "Oh my Goddesses. Baby, I am so, _so _incredibly sorry." 

Posie's shock and sudden grief was deep beyond tears. Deep within the hearts of the five of them gathered there—Link, Posie, Elaine, Naomi and Navi—they all knew that now there was no choice in the matter of where they must go now. They had had much help in moving toward Ipanajou; there was no guarantee that they would find it slowly trudging the return. The must move forward and hope to either reach their destination and return with the prize they sought, or hope along the way some kind soul could guide them back.

If only they knew into what hands the Ocarina had fallen, and to what purpose it was shortly to be put to. Then, the least of their worries would have been on merely their progress toward the mountain. 

***************************

They had chosen, for the scene of their devilish rites, a murky moor roughly interspersed with small, almost fen-like patches of wetness that smelled evilly of rotting meat. The few, sporadic trees were stripped early of their leaves in mid-September, while most other deciduous trees in temperate Hyrule were only slightly tinged with yellow. A fog that strove to choke the very earth itself stood twenty feet thick above the ground, obscuring stars and the land too many yards ahead for the low-flying hags as they swooped, stinking, diseased crows, over the blighted stretch. 

There were, of course, complications. Hyrule had entered and age of joy, peace and prosperity as had never been previously seen, even with monster infestations barely leaving enough sorrow and destruction to call upon Flames. And, with such flourishing, a Sacrifice was right out. Too suspicious it would be, to have a person suddenly go missing from the upper branches of Hyrule's pecking order. True, they had taken a man in their siege of Shadow Haven, and his carcass bounced sickeningly along as it was bound beneath their brooms. Despite their race's endangerment, one Sheikah man would not be missed. Even if he had once been a servant to the Royal Family, and his daughter the great Sage of Shadow, he was middle-aged for the Sheikah as he evened out around 86, and though his hair had always been white it had been making the long hike back up his scalp for some time before the witch sister has wrought his death out of searing, frozen magic. His flesh was long cold since that incident the afternoon before, and not fitting for the sacrilegious activities they planned to partake in. But his blood would help in their much older, more primitive magics they intended to work. 

Because they did not have the cinders of a sacrificial body's burning or the magical fires of death to reap the coals from they had to collect all the ashes—every last one, scattered as they were throughout Hyrule and even a slight few of its surrounding countries—from the body they were attempting to rebuild. The archaic workings they had found located within the Book of Dusk, guarded with—and paid for—in the lives of a few hardy Sheikah brave enough to stand in front of it with swords and glaives polished to a wicked steel shine that had no effect whatsoever on Twinrova. They knew most of it already, naturally—where would be their claim as witches if they didn't? But there were still a few choice words that were left out of their mental scrolls. They did, however, know that the workings required the assistance of an artifact almost as old as the spell and the parchment it was printed on—small and blue; a great magic force trapped and concealed inside an object so inconspicuous that the layman might ignore it, thinking it any ordinary clay ocarina, not expecting it to be _the _Ocarina with the power to tame and ride the currents of time as it its player willed. 

They had spotted Link climbing up Death Mountain a few days after their finagling with the Gorons and near a fortnight after their Zoran tangles, just as cheerful as you please and carting a large pack of supplies on his back. Why he opted for the old-fashioned method and did not simply go for one of his neat little Magic Pouches that shrunk all their contents to palm-sized proportions until they were needed was beyond them. They did not know what _he _was up to—perhaps he was making a pilgrimage of some kind—but his presence had become both a hindrance and a blessing. On one hand, regardless of whether or not he ever reached his destination, he had to be kept away from Mount Ipanajou. He clearly did not know of the disgustingly evil treasure that was buried in the peak atop there, that long ago some do-gooderly Scholar had locked away inside his tomb so even in death he could assure it could not fall into some villain's hand. If he did, he surely would have been off to destroy it long ago, with the same ideas as the Scholar in mind. And, if he kept going mindlessly in the direction of the hoary old mountain, he likely _would _hear of it and dash off to destroy that sweet, accursed blade. As long as he was left beating around the pinnacle's bush. Just as long as. 

The blessing part of his being near meant that, more likely than not, he was keeping his precious Ocarina with him in case the situation became too hairy for his pleasure. That, and he seemed to be able to keep rapport with the Sages with it, and if they were to be discovered—no. They would not think of that. But if they could send one of their dumb, brutish hoards down to where he rested and burgle him of the miniscule little flute, it saved them the troubles of attempting to find his abode and breaking inside of it. Neither Twinrova nor that "baby" of theirs which they spoke about in such cooing tones had ever bothered keeping much track of Link's personal life. He was just another moronic warrior, after all—true, albeit one with a divine mission and holy aura, but he likely spent his time doing silly, warrior things. Nothing of interest to the three of them. 

Koume and Kotake admitted to being a bit puzzled when the Moblin officer had presented the prize to them. He had brought a junior with him on the mission—Link was a sturdy fellow, after all; he might have needed a little extra restraint. Somehow, though, he had not been needed in securing the Hero, but instead a peculiar number of companions they report he had with him. An baffling companions indeed they were—if the Moblin's eyesight had not been too muddled in the dead of night, and his word was to be taken at face value, they were a couple of children and a Gerudo. Initially they believed the Gerudo to have heard of their most noble mission and brought Link to their cause, but she turned out to be an ally of his who went and surrendered herself at their feet. Koume figured that he might have wooed the Gerudo woman over to his side when he had been passing through that land, thanks to her deterrent spell in the Volcano, but the children left her and her sister's minds white. The officer did not elaborate on what they might have been like—ages, heights, appearances, or mannerisms. This did not help them. It left them with an empty file in the drawers they kept on Link's friends. They could not be sure if they were dealing with potential dangers of any sort. 

But larger matters were at hand now. And, in their current location, at the current time, with the current of ideas running through their heads at that particular moment, no one was going to stop them. 

As had been promised by the various heads of many monster armies, a small contingent of some of their most loyal beasts and a few expendables from their lower ranks greeted them. There were Moblins, with their ragged fur and gorilla-like arms, headed by the really delightful senior officer who had stolen the Ocarina from them. A small cavalry of Stalfos, those warriors who would not give up their bloody profession in life, their stark white, skeletal frames forever reeking of fresh blisters. Dodongos, of every size and stage of development; the ancient lizards of fire and earth, like low-slung dinosaurs who had refused to become extinct. Armor-skinned, snaky Moldorms colored both light and dark ate through the earth in anxiousness, the segments of their caterpillar bodies clacking together loudly as they moved. There were Tektites—blue, red, gold; dozens of dark red eyes all focused on the broom-bound hags soaring above. Octoroks in a similar triumvirate of colors in red, blue, and violet both wallowed in the shallow pools abundant in the moors and skittered insectlike over the cold, grassy lands. And a few other dregs of monsters peppered the crowd here and there, unaccompanied by many or any others of their race but clearly willing to put up a show for their loyalty. Was that Vire, Veran's ugly bat-demon of a former servant, skulking about in the back? 

"It looks as if we've got ourselves a good show-out, Koume," Kotake cackled pitchedly under her breath. 

Her fiery sister nodded in agreement—a very rare sight indeed. From the way the lights in her eyes trembled, it was clear she took delight in the grim prospect that some of the willing spectators and supporters would show their support for their Lord and King by becoming his first lunch in five long, excruciating years. 

The tail ends of their brooms sputtering slightly and expectorating a few variously colored sparks as the fuel the witches were channeling into them began to dry up, the sisters alighted on one of the few patches of truly dry land in sight. The assortment of eyes—some beady, some bloodshot, some jewelike—that had been following their descent bounced delicately in their sockets as they then traced Twinrova's passage on short, scuttling little legs to perch in front of their unruly mass, short but imperial. 

"Well?" Koume barked in her harsh voice, glaring darkly at the mob when they simply regarded her and her sibling's presence with a seemingly obedient and respectful silence. 

The senior Moblin officer "Ohed" loudly and dug thick sausage fingers into the grimy leather satchel at his belt. Though news of his success in stealing the Ocarina had reached the witches, they would not rest on their laurels until the proof of the deed was being smoothed over between their fingers. The slick surface of the instrument fumbled about a bit in the grease heavy on his digits, but eventually he held it steady and, slogging up through the crowd and marsh on his knees, he dutifully laid the spoils of his mission at the feet of the icen twin. 

A disfigured lump of flesh shot out like a dart from the flabby sleeve of Kotake's robe; it was a hand that seemed to be made of nothing but knucklebones. Along the violet veins that creeped like parasites over the outlines of ragged bones, lines of a dark power not known to any of the seven magical Realms flew. Fingers tipped in yellowing, infected claws caressed the Ocarina of Time like it was a cherished pet, and all of its goodness shuddered heavily as drops of that darkness leapt from the vessels to its pearly blue surface. 

She passed it to her sister, who went through the same fondling motions of the mystic object to ensure that they had been given the real deal, and not some school-child's pretend-time imitation. Her eyelids came together with something like a heavy _click _of recognition, and it became clear that they had certainly not been swindled.

"Well, you didn't _fail _us," fire-twin said in her nefarious caw. Though she would not tell the lackey that he had done a good job—compliments were far too much of a kind thing for the wicked Twinrova to partake in them.

"Nevah fail, mistrusses," her hissed into the slop he had genuflected his head into. "I iz loyal an' truswordy, an' I nevah fails youse." 

"Very well, then. You brought us the Ocarina, but you _didn't _bring us Link. And why is that, Skrash?" 

He looked up from his too-deep bow, but only enough so that his eyes, huge with a plea, were on level with Koume's. "'Oh, mistrusses, please fergive me… 'e, 'e weren't alone, an' we wuz afraid 'ed get 'is friends tuh… 'elp 'im…" 

"Not alone, huh?" Kotake instantly took interest. "Tell me, my good fellow, who was with him? Other warriors? A mage, perhaps?" 

"Jus'… jus' two gidrens, an' a Gerudo, bud shes was wid Lingh, an' I dun know wuh shes doin' wid 'im."

Kotake went briefly ponderous, mulling over the several possible meanings of Link's odd choice of companions and superimposing those meanings over each other in her head, weighing themselves against each other. "Two kids and a Gerudo. Gerudo's a traitor, no doubt; we'll have to deal with her personally if we ever see her. But children… Now that's peculiar… How old did they look, Skrash?"

Skrash blubbered out, "Dey wuz jus' little 'uns, mistruss, coudnta been more den four er five…" 

"Hmm," Koume thought a moment, then waved the thought away like a bad dream. "An unpredicted element in our scheme, but hardly an important one. I doubt two little _munchkins_ will be able to do much against us, once things are set in motion." Almost boredly, she yawned at the Moblin, "Dismissed."

Skrash waddled frightenedly back among the tight little cluster of his people somewhere near the rear of the conglomeration. They regarded him with an awe usually reserved for fireworks; Koume ran another leathery finger lovingly over the Ocarina and turned with conspiratorial eyes and voice on her sister. "Well, we've got everything we're gonna need for this little picnic, it seems. The blanket,"—she pulled down the hood of her purple robe and began to fiddle one-handedly with the clasp, "the basket,"—Kotake set down the garish glazed urn she cradled like an infant, "the sunshine,"—Koume reached into what appeared to be a flat pocket in the inside of her cowl as it fell away, pulling out a tome whose wounded surface was enough to inspire nausea, "and the lunchmeat." Kotake gazed, not without some pride, at the Shadow Person's pallid carrion, bleached even more brilliant by death. Koume seemed more charmed to eye the motley infantry that had been their welcome wagon, noting in particular Skrash and Dodongo of wicked, festering reds intermingled with brown—a truly ugly creature to behold, indeed. And all the more powerful for it. 

But, there was no time for eye candy—work was required of them by their dead son and master, and if it was not enacted soon, with night still breathing its heavy stench into the air, then all their preparation would be useless. Of course, it would be effective once more once the sun got around to setting again, but they had everything _now_. They didn't want to wait. Koume spread the square of her opened cloak out of the ground, letting it become half-submerged in the sour old water. "_New-wet with the water of the ominous fen," _she clearly recalled the book saying. Well, if this place wasn't "ominous," someone had screwed up in setting her internal dictionary. Of course, it was a very old spell, after all, and those were littered with peculiar and often vague factors—nothing clear and concise like eye of newt. (Though Kotake did keep a small jar of powdered newt eyes in her cloak's shrinking pocket—it was very good for migraines, and Goddesses knew those were common where you started to get upwards of 400.) No, it was usually very nebulous stuff, like "odd-bent steel," or "savory stone-dust," or any number of other ingredients with a dash in them somewhere. Those ancient mages must've been rather hyphen happy. 

But that was all she could really remember clearly. Plus, the instructions for their spell were as curious as its components, and the two of them were going to need step-by-step guidance to pull it off. And they'd best follow along with their prominent proboscises nearly glued to the book's spine, as they only got one shot at _this _particular spell. One of the parts required was destroyed in the casting, whether they did it right or not… and as this particular bit couldn't be replenished, that meant their search had to go elsewhere. 

Koume set the Ocarina gingerly on the ground, mindful to keep its mouthpiece pointing up, as she was going to have to be playing it later. She didn't want to do that with the bitter taste of stagnant water lingering in her mouth. With that out of her hands, she could better settle the Book of Dusk in them to leaf through, finding the spot they'd bookmarked to work from. To touch each of the pages stung a little, leaving a deep red sheen on her fingertips—each brush sponged a little blood out of what touched it to the surface. She reconsidered touching her nose to it. Finding the paragraphs she sought, she shifted the volume in her hands so that she only came against the cover, then scanned down the list of needed portents in the spell to ensure they had them all. 

"_A witch's cloak, new-soaked in the waters of an ominous fen." _She'd just taken care of that. Check.

"_The ashes, each and all, of the body that had housed the soul to be retrieved—"_—the part that would get spent regardless, and that they couldn't get back. Koume winced a little, but not because she'd accidentally brushed a page. But because the stakes were so high… She watched as Kotake tilted the urn and laid out the ashes, sketching with them a complex figure with the Möebius symbol for infinity at its heart. It was, after all, immortality—the infinity of a being's life—they were seeking with this. It was a lucky thing for them that demon's souls could not pass on into next lives, or else they might have lost their chance already, finding their son already in a new stage. 

"_A relic of the slayer of the body." _The Ocarina could have been used for this purpose, but they had another, much more specific need for it. Something that could only be obtained with it exactly, unless they wanted to go find a natural zone of ruptured magic that also happened to be right around the corner from an "ominous fen." Their "relics" were a few strands of green thread, unraveled away from one of those tunics Link loved so much—they had torn them away from his clothing during their last encounter, perhaps eight years previously. Kotake had definitely said that they should keep them, perhaps for some sort of voodoo charm later. She had been in the right path of thinking that time, Koume now had to agree. 

"_That weapon last wielded by the body._" That had been a bit of a roadblock for Twinrova. They weren't entirely sure what he'd been fighting with before he'd been killed—they were really chancing it by making a guess, but he'd really only used one or two favorite weapons—plus a slew of spells, but those didn't really have permanent physical form. So essentially, it was an A, B, or C choice. They'd gone with his combination axe/spear, and hoped for the best. 

"_Blood._" At least _that _one was simple enough to fulfil. Didn't specify where it had to come from, or how much—though a few gallons would probably be best. Just needed some to entire the errant soul, and some to fill its belly when it came back. The dead man's body would likely provide enough to sustain him when he awoke—for a little while. He would soon grow hungry again, until he had drunk enough to replenish what has merely boiled away when he'd been destroyed. That was one of the problems with this spell; it left the returned without blood, and made them slightly vampiric until enough blood flowed in their veins again. But, on the plus side, the returned gained the powers of those whose blood they consumed, and once they caught up with Link…! 

"_An audience of willing spectators._" Done. After all, there were a number of monsters out there more than eager to witness their King's return—and many of them still willing to come, even though their lives were at stake in the fact that they might become the snacks. She guessed they were noble, in their way, like that. 

And then the most difficult ingredient of all to obtain… 

"_An _unwilling _spectator, stolen from the past in either body or soul to partake of the horrors._" And that, of course, was exactly why they needed the Ocarina. They needed to reach back in time with the tentacles of the thing's song and pull someone through who had to sit through the whole ordeal and get scared witless. In order to go on properly, the spell needed two very powerful forces to intermingle—the of sheer delight(from the willing audience) and sheer terror(from the unwilling one), meeting to weave together into the whole spectrum of human emotions. Those would help produce the charge of magic that would call the soul back to its reconstructing body—the sheer primal charge of being able to _feel _things, instead of a dull monotony in attitude. 

On the ground, Koume exchanged the book for the Ocarina. Kotake had arranged the threads on one side of the pattern made of ashes, and laid the spearhead of his weapon on the other side. Now, to call in the final piece, as Kotake performed her arcane dervish and said the words to set the spell into motion… 

Koume put the small blue sweet potato to her mouth, and played. It resisted her dirty lips and fingers, naturally—it squawked and screeched and made every discordant sound a little wind instrument could, but, if it had been humanoid, the witch's actions would be the equivalent of boxing its ears(not a funny thing if you're Hylean) so that, through all its harshness, _somewhere_ deep down, it rang true. It didn't like being forced into the somber melody, which was a pretty if somewhat mournful thing when Link played it—but under these foul fingers and moldy gums, it had so many more sinister undertones. Koume's filthy mind focused on the meaning of those notes, and what she needed from the past she probed around it with the mental kin to a hot poker—

Something snapped somewhere in the fabric of space and time—from around a year back, a forlorn little waif of a soul came drifting in, her body at home shivering beneath her nightgown as her essence went somewhere else entirely. Being a soul, it was largely invisible unless you had mage-sight—and out of the corner of her toadlike eye, Koume just barely caught a flicker of the unsteady purple band. It meandered a little, slightly shell-shocked but not too upset. 

She took the instrument out of her mouth, feeling nothing even remotely resembling terror emanate from the violet blob of mist. "Dang, don't think that one's scared enough," she harshly growled to Kotake. 

"Lemmie try that, then," her sister replied, and the fiery hag passed the instrument over and took command of the dance and chant. 

Kotake started a few notes of melody, but stopped short as a little baby trickle of fear, then maddening horror, took hold of the soul. It darted off in the direction of a thorny, bedraggled bush, but she grinned a sickening grin as she felt its gruesome state grow so deep that it had no choice but to remain fixated. 

"I think it'll do just fine," she chuckled with a snaggletooth grin.

Koume resumed the instrument, quickly returning to her grim imitation of the Song of Time, rapidly putting the notes in to the air before the soul's own proper time could take hold of it. Its shock and terror permeated like a mist, intermingling above the site of the witch's grim rites with a similar fog of fiendish joy, emanating from the hooting and howling mess of monsters. They became almost visible to peripheral vision above the demon's circle above the cloak—yellow enmeshed amongst blood-red, like wrestling snakes trying to pin each other down. Occasionally an orange flare would strike up from the midst of the stew, singing the song that lightning practiced at choir; leaving the air behind it steaming with the heat of evil. Only twice had this spell ever been performed since its conception, and on that first try, the performer had been magically too weak, and devoured by what he'd tried to call. But Twinrova were stronger. A Wolfos among the crowd bayed to the moon and stars with exhilaration; the soul gave a silent shriek in the night. 

The ashes were beginning to reform.

Twinkling now like ill-lit stars, pieces of them set themselves together in the shell of the pattern for a skeleton. Its arms, with big, thick biceps built for bearing the strain of almost a hundred pounds of muscle, were almost three-fourths the lengths of its body, which had a great, wide ribcage that had been filled with lungs fully the size of a grown man. And a great heart, too—for pumping around this creature's many gallons of blood—but for all it was filled with liquid, it was empty of a caring soul. The legs of this beast were not quite as long as its gorilla arms, but like its upper arms, its thighbones were thick as a normal person's (fully-fleshed) arm, and it had sprawling toes ending in deadly-looking black hooks. One of its shoulder blades might easily guard a fair-sized Goron from harm, and its head—almost puny for the mighty body it possessed—had the shape and nose of a pig's, but the jaws of a pug-faced hound. Similar in physique to a Moblin, but infinitely more sinister.

More and more pieces of ash, along with dozens of particles that seemed to be swept up from nowhere, filled the in the spaces left in the frame until a beastly Stalfos, going on some seventeen feet tall, teetered there on unsteady feet. The barely-there fogs fought even more viciously with each other to make a current, and the axe/spear head dissolved and floated up with them. It broke up into infinitesimal chunks that coated the eerie structure, giving it a devious silver sheen, though it was only visible up close. However, the _click click click _of metal on bone was audible for some distance.

The tiny green wefts of thread were the next to become embroiled in the stream, floating along up with more ash particles and the curious dust through the blank eye sockets in the thing's skull. Though from the outside, it was not visible, inside they wove together for it a brain—a brain more insidiously cunning than a Keaton's and more blood-obsessed than a starved vampire. And the relic of the slayer entwined in the circuit boards of the creature hard-wired it for one task from the start—to seek out and destroy its destroyer.

As devil's hands wrought the mind, its assistant pushed the parts together to form its body. As if they were balloons being inflated, its organs sprouted up from where they would have grown—the man-sized lungs, the red, throbbing heart, and the muscular baggage on its arms and legs. And the rest as well—its dark, slimy liver, its ugly, tangled maze of entrails, and its stomach—so much smaller than one might have expected. But the being had a slow metabolism, and didn't need one that was very large. Skinny, white nerves and crimson veins dashed over and under ever conceivable surface, blood and brain signals already starting to sluggishly pulse along them. 

Next, like a crawling fungus, the skin appeared from the very soles of its feet and started to climb its way up with nauseating sounds of growth. But its eye sockets were still black and devoid of sight. But in life, this creature had been far from blind. Koume noticed this, and attempted not to wince as she played along with her sour rhythm—no eyes could potentially mean a big problem in execution, and if they'd messed up, even though their handiwork had come this far… it was all for naught. 

It was a pale, thin skin. It accentuated bones and tendons; twisted springs from their re-birth. It gave a lumpy, almost unperceivable chin to the snarling maw, new pink gums punctually ending before too much of skyward fangs were sheathed. It left much of the demon's thorny crown exposed, as well. But it went and covered up those open eye sockets, with paper-thin lids laced with only the very faintest of eyelashes. They sunk deep in to the open holes. 

As if being slurped up by a cosmic straw, the mists of the two clashing emotions instantly retreated. Koume stopped playing and stared on in bewilderment; Kotake quit her crazed ballet to stare gape-mouthed and still. Something was wrong. He was still incomplete; his eyes had never been finished. What was going on? Why was the spell coming to a halt? The witches held their breaths, awaiting their handiwork's imminent collapse.

Then, from the very edges of the wet cloak, two ashes—the very last two left on the ground—floated up into the sky, leaving behind them a screaming trail of brilliant white. Fearlessly the two miniscule comets dashed up the mountainous height of the restored demon, occasionally tickling up to his body to caress his brand-new skin. When they reached his face, they melted straight through his eyelids, instantly filling out and expanding to complete his wicked structure.

He opened his eyes.

They were ugly, red orbs; a cauldron of lava whose fueling fires had the wisdom of a thousand libraries—and wasn't afraid to use it for the most terrifying of purposes.

He opened his mouth, and he roared.

***********************

Strange forces seemed to be working on the two members of the Blade family that night as they paced down the cold clam of the Moblins' blister of a fortress. 

Posie called a halt to their processions quite suddenly about what they assumed was halfway out—for they had really no idea of where in the façade they had been dragged, and were meandering simply down in the hopes that that was the correct route. Her eyes very suddenly took on a huge, dilated look, and from behind them she was undergoing something like double vision. At least, that was how she described it when Link asked her what the matter was. Still, that wasn't the proper name for it—but did it have a proper name? It was as if someone had lain two film negatives on top of each other, and she was staring at both, held up to the light. She seemed to be seeing glimpses of two places at once; the inside of the solid, tangible fort, and a panning video reproduction of a painful dream. The colors of both were distorted and milky. 

Link could clearly recall the nightmare plain and disturbed skeleton from Posie's dream as she belted out its description—after all, it'd taken almost two hours to lure her back to sleep that night! But something about the dream had also, though he'd never admitted it, given him indistinct chills also, and he remembered much of that night with crystal-sharpened clarity. Perhaps that was why he could almost recite Chapter 23 of _The Silver Sapphire _by heart. A few choice snippets of it floated to the top of his head—mainly, the part where Sir Edrill and his sidekick Lorigo gave a small, reassuring pep talk to the Queen of Derxelholm's elite guard—and he wished he could remember the rest at the moment. Tearing, vague prickles rippled up and down the back of his neck, and it reminded him of stand in the place where lightning _almost_ struck. 

This time, there was no _almost. _

An invisible, immense load that burned with the heat of the Sun suddenly fell square on to Link and Posie's backs. The double scope of the real world and the forlorn dream vanished from Posie's vision, but she shut her eyes anyway, fearing that, if she opened them, inhuman terrors would be the sight that awaited them. Now that her sight had been toyed with, some force began playing with her other senses—a ricocheting howl bounced back and forth between her ears, and she felt the piercing needles of a sinister gaze on her back. Her nostrils and tongue smelt and tasted the perverse aura of beings whose tiniest touch was poison to the earth. 

Link, on the other hand, felt as if he was convulsing amidst the claws of some vicious voodoo. Even though he knew his feet were safely rooted to the ground, he felt phantom claws and blades tearing at every available bit of his flesh, and invisible grips, punches, and kicks hurling him across the room. It was like being enmeshed in several battles at once, and he made motions behind him for sword, but he found that his motor skills had suddenly gone haywire on him—it was like trying to swipe at a quickly-bobbing fairy, while dizzy, with one eye closed so as to kill depth perception. 

Stunned, Naomi backed up from the two wildly contorting figures, each fighting off their own personal nightmares. Meekly, she asked Elaine, "D-d-d'you know what's wrong with them?" 

"It… it kinda looks like what happened back in the forest… only… it looks around a hundred times worse." Elaine felt absolutely pitiful compared to the dark energies she could feel convulsing through them, burying her face in the extra folds of Naomi's pant legs. 

"Link never did get into detail about what made him go like that… did Posie elaborate any?"

Elaine shook her head. 

"You think there's anything we can do for 'em?" 

"I wish there was."

************************

The world fused into being around him. Half-imagined specters became real; nebulous mists came together and solidified. Indistinctly to his ears came a truly ferocious trembling he only barely was able to recognize as his own voice, crowing with some indecipherable emotion. Fear? Joy? Rage? Perhaps simply for the sake of a roar. It was harsher than he remember it. Or was he remembering correctly? Perhaps remembering at all? After his stay in the fuzzy, indistinct Sacred Realm, the physical world just seemed too _everything. _The sound of his voice too harsh; the dead grass beneath his feet too multifarious; the tongue in his jaw too wet. But he had been here before and tolerated it; surely he could do so again. The wind was cold against his bare and naked skin, but he knew he had felt greater discomfort before. So many murky and unfixed things still swum about in his mind. Perhaps his first collected thoughts, though they would not be happy ones, should be to seek how great that discomfort had gone so the rest he was feeling now would be tame in comparison. 

Instantly his head was filled with snatches of fire and light, diving toward his flesh and sinking itself it, cutting his body to rags and filling his blackened soul with the greatest misery a demon could endure. Light, heat and pain… he tried to forge these first images into something more resolute in his head. The flames and sparks drew out and thinned, into a blade… not an extensively long blade, but one flat, sharp, and honed by hands more delicate than any mortal's. Death had been brought to him—not once, but again and again—in the form of an ethereal sword, with a hilt carved of a light, indigo metal no human knew the ore to. Did the sword have a bearer? Indeed it did, and, though he could not see the face, he knew the hand bore a golden mark etched in the shape of three triangles. 

Oh, the hatred that bearer wrought in him! He would have liked to break those bearer's bones one by one between his monster's claws. To know the name of that bearer and seek him out; the joy it would instill in him… 

Hunger. He felt a raw, primal hunger. He collapsed to his knees and found himself setting eyes on a pair of oddly familiar faces, with grossly exaggerated features that gave them the semblance of insects. He could not quite decode their words as of yet—his full grasp of language was only returning to him a few trickles a second—but he could _feel _enough that they were cooing over him with maternal compassion. His eyes softened a little when he saw them, and they certainly caught his reaction, becoming even more excited that he had remember their faces. As who, he was not sure yet. But he knew it would return; perhaps if he just had a little bite to eat… 

There were a few funny sticks sitting a couple strides away from him, and all tied up with heavy rope to one was a pale, gangly figure, with a big gaping mouth and empty, pink-read eyes. Was that something good to eat? Even from this distance, the faint scents wafting from it seemed tantalizing. Very far back and very deep in the morass seething in his skull, the remnants of something he might have had once—it was called a "conscious," he thought, though he couldn't clearly remember—told him against devouring that body. Instead, it told him, dig a hole in the ground, and put the poor broken thing in there.

But, his logical side argued, where was the sense in that? It didn't serve any purpose down there. It was a dead thing, and the purpose of dead things… did they serve any purpose? But, he remembered, they did die in such funny ways. It prompted a mild, grim smile from the grisly patchwork of his mind and emotions. The motherly beings clapped their hands together delightedly as he waddled over to the corpse, having a surprisingly good recollection of how his legs operated. He carefully reached out a claw, waiting in an unsure fashion to make sure it was truly devoid of life. One second, two seconds, three that it did not move, and on he watched, listening for the faint rumbling of its heart or the rushing of its breath…

And it didn't come. Satisfied, he spread his arm forward to clasp the meager body, finding out it made a very unusual noise when it he squeezed it tightly like that. He let go slightly and crunched again, entranced by the mashing noises of crumbling bones. 

Eventually, though, he stopped hearing those sounds, and noticed how rubbery and limp his potential meal had become. He could no longer feel the stiff supports inside of it, keeping it ridged. He rubbed one of the flaccid bits together between his fingers, feeling it rather grainy, though there seemed to be nothing less to crush. He had begun to massacre the legs of the body when one of the creatures, the one with trails of fire behind her, called out, "Eat your food, don't play with it—"—and he understood. Resentfully, that he could not enjoy the cracking sound any longer, he held the lump of flesh the wrong way up and sunk his fangs into one of its lower limbs, tearing it with a sharp ragged noise from its body—

*************************

"Oh, my! How hideous!" 

Pirika Magarashthla had usually been one with a particularly strong stomach—she had been, after all, a doctor and surgeon among the Sheikah, and seen to more than one amputation. But she had always been meticulous in her removal of parts, most carefully nicking through flesh and sawing at bones so as to minimize pain, disease, and complications that may later result. To see a leg so unceremoniously and disgustingly ripped from its socket by that wicked pair of jaws… A delicate green hue sprung up in the sides of her moon-white cheeks. It was too much, even for one who had seen every gory aspect of the human body in all its glory, such as her. 

"Pirika, if it disturbs you, you're more than welcome to leave," the elderly-looking man beside her calmly offered. His tall nose was pressed almost directly into glossy image, superimposed over a lustrous, ordinary-looking grayish-green tile. His neatly-trimmed little goatee blended in almost perfectly with his face, as pale a white as hers, though while hers was only as wrinkled as a freshly-washed tunic, his was as wrinkled as an unmade bed. 

"N… N-No. I… I can't. We must keep monitoring him and his movements… Get an idea of what his plans may be… and, at the very least, find out what fate my husband's body must endure. No matter how gruesome it may be." 

"_I _personally think you're getting a bit silly, Pirika. I know that if it was _my_ husband getting masticated there, I probably couldn't stand it for even a minute… but, I suppose, it is a fairly noble thing if you're willing to sit through it," a tall woman with her silvery locks in a two-foot ponytail said. 

"Thank you, Chevance," Pirika replied, fighting to keep her nausea down. "If he was noble enough to fight off those awful witches until they… well, _killed _him, the least I can do in return for his protection of our Shadow Haven…" 

"Ah, and if only he had succeeded," the elderly man sighed, glancing about the small circle of tile observers and ending to fall on Pirika. "Then, I daresay, your daughter Impa's grim predictions might not have come true…" 

"Well, we can only be thankful that she was prudent enough to notice the signs beforehand and warn us against them," the tall one said, wincing openly as the doddering pig-like figure in their hazy vision slurped up the dead man's entrails like spaghetti. "We can at least defend ourselves with the knowledge we weren't caught by surprise…"

"Certainly, and speaking of surprises," the elderly one wandered, taking a more cheerful detour. " "Pirika, before she went _Mæditori, _did your daughter tell you if you're going to have a granddaughter or grandson, and what she's planning on naming them?" 

Happy for an excuse to draw her eyes away from the fearful sights above the tile, the Sheikah woman replied, "Yes, a granddaughter… and she's going to name her Keena, she said." 

"Keena… that means 'innocence,' doesn't it? I did always like that name… 'twas the name of a late aunt of mine, I do believe. Of course, my father always said, his sister was one of the least innocent people he ever knew, but that's family for you." He made a small, intricate study of the demon in the window sucking the marrow from one of the Pirika's husband's arm bones, tilting his head almost with a professional interest. "And… have you received any sort of feeling or premonition as to what this girl will be like?" 

"Only that in the future, she will be great friends with two young girls, each of them apparently coincidentally a half-and-half race mixture like herself… Oh, I'm certainly glad Arouth is dead, can you imagine how _that _one must've hurt?" 

"Shame, shame," the taller Sheikah woman scolded her. "You know as well as I do… no coincidences, no coincidences!" 

"Very well, I agree. No coincidences," Pirika sighed at being outdone. 

****************************

Not a splinter of bone nor scrap of flesh was left when the voracious demon finished his feeding frenzy. In his stomach his gory meal churned, the muscles and proteins sufficing as his nutrition and the blood magically draining away. It began to course through his own veins with a slurping, sputtering noise only audible if all was silent and one happened to be listening for it. With this return to a modicum of efficiency for his cardiovascular system—his heart no longer convulsing dryly in his chest—so was ushered in a few dewy trails of his memory.

He saw a face. It became solid in his head—young and handsome, with a great untamed wilderness of straw-tone hair on his head, a prominent, flat nose, high cheekbones, a trapezoidal chin, and eyes of a most overwhelming blue that rang with both solemnity and hysterics. Had that been… _his _face once? Surely that beautiful visage had not been mangled into the hog-like guise he wore now? No… bells chimed deep within his recollection. Their somber tones fluidly connected that head to a body all swathed in green—and out of it swept that accursed hand, wielding tightly in it that wicked spear of angels. Angels and Goddesses! No, he knew that _that _face belong to one who was perhaps the holiest man in Ebridane, and long had he forsaken holiness. His slayer. His destroyer. His _murderer. _What had been the wretched beast's name? 

_Link…_

Oh, how that the thought of the name shook him! It was a simple word to heart. A chain, a connection, a pathway, a course. Yet put it to that hair, those clothes, and those noisome eyes and it was a word to cleave the hearts of the impure like himself. And how long had his foul brothers and sisters run from it without his paternal protection? Variations of Link passed through him in flashes—a sweet, unjaded child of ten, a youth bursting out of his infantine ways at twelve, a powerful warrior-to-be at thirteen, a genuine threat at fourteen… and a few miscellaneous drops of him with hair of a deeper, earthier shade, but those crystal-sapphire eyes still as painful as ever. But clearest of all were those pictures of him from their last battle, when he had teetering downward from his twentieth birthday. Something was so _different _about Link that battle. He still had the knight's fighting spirit, but he had lacked the knight's throwaway attitude. He had something to stay alive for, that fight. Something greater than Hyrule. But what could dear old Link see as more important than protecting his precious kingdom from the grip of Ganon?

_Ganon?_

Ahh, what a dear old name. He'd forgotten how much he'd missed it. He grinned a little, savoring its mental flavor. It was bitter as the strongest medicine, yet deadly as cyanide. A name that meant oozing, dripping, rending, crushing slow death.

Link would have a high price to pay once Ganon found him—oh yes, did he! And his mothers the Twinrova would have to be rewarded with a great, evil treasure once he had regained his old strength. Through that crackling, staticky mental link with them he possessed, sprinting back to him with a fervor, he saw that he had been gone a great five years, but they had been planning not only his return, but a spectacular plan to initiate his comeback. It was horrid. It was vicious. It was… superb. He hardly could have put together something more dastardly himself. 

He turned away from the stains on the ground that he had left, for his awkward dictated that he dribbled terribly as he ate. Bald, limp, crippled, dulled, and more full of revenge than he had ever felt in any of his splintered life, he bellowed, "Hear me, o minions, for your Evil King has returned!" 

*************************

Feeling as if his feet had suddenly turned into slippery ball-bearings, Link slowly felt the hellish pain subside. The shadow beatings had left no marks upon his skin, but he still felt as if he'd been turned inside out—and at least one part of him had been. The contents of his stomach had not survived his invisible lashing, though Posie had fared better with whatever had been cutting across her. Sensing their consecutive returns to the mortal realm, Naomi and Elaine rushed over to support them emotionally and physically. 

"Link! Goddesses! Are you _O.K._?" 

"Naomi…" 

"Yeah, yeah, I'm right here, Linky-boy. Oh, Ladies of the Heavens, whatever that was, please don't do it again…" 

Clutching his now-empty stomach, he replied, "You think I did that by _choice_?" 

Posie, wrapped around Elaine's leg to stop herself from falling over, whimpered, "I wanna go home, Daddy. I'm sick and tired of this… I just wanna go home." 

"Oh, my baby…" He waddled away from Naomi, tipping left and right, to scoop his daughter lovingly up in his arms. He stroked her soft pale hair with a few fingers, clutching her close to his heart. "I wanna go home too, kid, but… something happened to my Ocarina! We'd have to retrace _all our steps _to get home… but who knows how far these Moblins have taken us off our course? We're just gonna have to follow the map until we get to a village and hope someone there will be able to help us get home somehow." 

"Pose…" Elaine looked upward at her weeping friend, her face spreading evenly across it her own pain and that of her companion. "C'mon, Pose. Stop crying. Please? You're… you're gonna make _me _cry!" 

"S-s-sorry," Posie sputtered. "I just feel so awful right now. I can't go home, an'…" She sobbed a little. "…And that was the most terrible thing that's ever happened to me! I felt like I was torn in two pieces…" 

"I think we all feel torn in two," Navi agreed. "Well… no point in moping about it, though. We've gotta keep moving, you know." 

"_I'll lift my head my head up high, and carry on, yes carry on…_" Posie intoned enigmatically. 

"Huh?" wondered Naomi aloud. 

"I recognize that," Link sighed, a little life tiptoeing back into his eyes. "That's from that song you love. Some band… real ridiculous name… Later Meaning Yesterday; isn't that it?"

"Yeah…" Posie swallowed the last of her tears. "Daddy, could you please put me down?… …Thanks. C'mon, guys, let's all carry on too." 


	16. Arachnophobia

((CAN: I think someone up there needs to improve on the celestial scaffolding, because I think Heaven just fell to Earth in the form of screenshots of the Zelda E3 footage. dies a happy, happy girl It's supposed to be BLOODY! And DARK! And MATURE! I suppose Link finally told ol' Shig that he's through with the kiddy stuff. But seriously… Have you SEEN the screenshots/footage? Every nanosecond of it is pure bliss… TuT))

((OK, back to normal. Whatever that is. Look, guys, I'm so uber-sorry it's been so long since I last updated. I had serious writer's block that not even six-hour sessions of OoT could cure. You can thank the new Zelda game stuff if you wanted me back to badly. ;P)

Spinning Slash, Chapter 16: Arachnophobia

Posie had no idea when, exactly, or where, she'd fallen asleep. Nor had she any recollection, once she'd woken up, on how exactly she'd managed to do such and still maintain the pace that kept her in step with the others of her group. But, she supposed, the task of placing one foot in front of the other had become so autonomous, and her weariness so overwhelming, that her mind had slotted walking into a lower level of concentration and she fell into a kind of trance. Not surprisingly, she found herself jilted into a dream where she was pacing through the corridors of a castle whose twists and curves were identical to that of the interior of the Moblin fortress her physical self tread, though her dreamscape was abound with cheer and mystery begging of curiosity, not gloom and enigma crying to be feared.

It was a palace made of pure purple crystal, whose workings and designs were so fine and yet so erratic that it didn't seem like anyone, even one of the Goddesses, could simply have _carved _it. It was as if a tremendous block of amethyst had formed within the earth that way, and slowly been eroded to the surface until it stood in its present-day position. Even the veins of silver, gold, and other precious metals threading through the crystal in intricate patterns had an incredible sense of _wholeness_; of a part in a being who had always been as it was and always would be. Though beautiful, Posie found it trying on her eyes, since, except for the occasional plays of the omnipresent light, rarely was it easy to distinguish the castle's decorations from their landscape.

_Where am I, and why did I come here? _she asked herself, knowing that surely she had some purpose in being in this brilliant violet façade, though it was choosing to remain veiled in a part of her subconscious so deep even dreams could not touch it. And how she knew she was dreaming; well; there was another thing she was unsure about. So many questions, and no one to ask—

Well, perhaps not _no _one. All through her gradual exploration of these bejeweled halls, she had been accompanied by two other children. Certainly, judging by their faces and their height, they _had _to be older than her. Perhaps nine or ten, she guessed on them. The little boy bore a soft, silent smile that belied nothing of his motives or his identity, with facial features and a great mop of untamable hair that reminded her of her dear friend, Atahl the fairy. The girl beside him had peaks of hair hewn from pearls, skin only barely touched with peach and gentle pink eyes that marked her as either an albino or a Sheikah. She moved with such stillness—even her arms were held in a prayer-like pose in front of her—that she appeared to me merely gliding across the slick purple floor. They had said nothing and had never once turned to look at her, as she had with them.

They did, however, seem to know she was there. If she suddenly stood still, they would as well, and not pick up their feet again until she picked up hers. She had not thought to ask them for help, however, because she had the slightly sickening suspicion that they were only following _her_. If she didn't know their destination, and they were just playing follow-the-leader behind her, how would _they _have any sort of clue?

Posie sighed a little to herself. Figuring that it was best to simply follow the straight turn of the corridors here and hope that they lead to the exit, she mumbled to no one in particular: "I wish I knew where we were going."

Much to her surprise, the children behind her answered obligingly. However, it was in the same airy, just-talking-to-myself-don't-mind-me voice she had mused her question with. "Oh, we are going to get Posie's warning, yes, aren't we?" said the girl, in a gentle voice that was high but without a trill.

"Yes, we are going to see our Lady and get the warning from her," the boy replied. His voice was lightly nasal, but the degree was no less than to that of a mild cold.

"Yes, that Posie mustn't go to Ipanajou, oh no," the girl chirped. "That it would be very, very dangerous, yes."

"No, not to Ipanajou," the boy said. "Yes, she must turn back and go home, yes? Back to her mummy with her daddy close behind her."

"She doesn't know what evil, evil things are there, no."

"No, no she doesn't! Yes, there are _most _horrible things there."

Posie was almost sorry she asked. She rolled her eyes and tried to discreetly put her hands to her ears. Though at first, the two older children had a way of talking which was droll and endearing, but after a few—very few—sentences became irritating in the way it was laced with superfluous affirmatives and negatives. Their banter had proved mildly helpful, though—she knew now, at least, that they were looking for the Lady of her companions. Who, as the girl had said, was going to give her a warning of some sort—but the girl had so quickly elaborated on its nature that she needn't now bother. So, she was to stay away from Ipanajou, was she? Turn around and go home. Well, those two ridiculous little twits! That was what she had _wanted _to do earlier! But, of course, she couldn't. So, this warning she was going to be given was completely useless, as it made no statements of fact or advisories that hadn't already been considered.

But… she couldn't help wondering… what _sort _of horrible things were waiting on the mountain? She removed her palms from the side of her head. Evidently, however, she'd missed it, for the girl was now saying, in her roundabout way, "Oh, of course, yes, if she were to be so silly as to go up Ipanajou, yes, and get to the Scholar's Tomb, she would be even _sillier _to approach the door."

A door, huh? She hadn't heard anything about any doors inside the Scholar's Tomb, but she supposed it made sense. Most true tombs possessed multiple chambers, and having doors between them was a logical enough thing. She deftly sidestepped to avoid smashing into a large crystal potted plant that seemed to have suddenly appeared out of nowhere, stepping into a little rectangle of light falling on the floor from one of the thin, slitted windows.

Posie stopped for a moment inside that rectangle. This light fell on her arms and legs in a way that light in the real world didn't—it was almost like a liquid, warm and creamy like the lather of a fine soap. It lit the highlights in her hair on fire, and regardless of its original tint, it turned all of the colors on her body into yellows varying in brightness. She looked up out of the window, where a brilliant golden sky—

Golden sky! Golden sky? _Golden sky._

Instantly into her head came flooding memories of a nursery rhyme familiar to all Hylean children, a one-verse ditty that she could never remember _not _knowing.

_"Deep inside the Sacred Realm_

The sky shines gold not blue

There the Triforce's might

Makes mortal dreams come true."

The Sacred Realm. Deep within the Sacred Realm shone a golden sky. And oh, the wonders she had been told awaited there, and did it not make sense that this wonderful castle, made of a solid stone yet seemingly never having met a chisel, was one of them? The Sacred Realm. It was said that that was where the dead were dearly departed to, yet she was, as far as she knew, still alive. But the children behind her… Posie gulped, wondering what horrible fate those two had met so young in life. Perhaps… they, too, had gone to the Scholar's Tomb, and been taken by the wraiths there. Why they escorted her to receive her "warning" about that place from their Lady.

And, given her location, that Lady could only be—

"Hey, Mom, I think Posie's fallen asleep," Elaine said to Naomi as their feet wore on mercilessly along the sludge-encrusted walls of the Moblin Fortress.

Naomi looked quizzically past her daughter at the little girl nodding along beside her. Posie's eyes did not seem to be all the way open, but her little boot soles kept up in a tiny slap-slap rhythm on the cold stones beneath them. Somnambulists Naomi were no stranger to, but falling asleep while actually in the process of walking was something she'd certainly never heard of. She watched interestedly as Posie swerved to avoid an imagined object—_Well, no sense in not being careful while walking with your eyes closed,_ she thought to herself. Posie asked aloud, in a quite conscious way, where the lot of them were headed. Link replied that they were, of course, trying to find the exit, but Posie didn't seem to care about his response—in fact, after a few seconds, Posie put her fingers in her ears. Her hands moved in an agitated manner, but her face was a perfect, sleepy blank.

Elaine tapped Posie on the shoulder. "Pose…?"

"Mmmfg," Posie replied.

"Posie…?"

"Glnd Skke?" the girl mumbled deafly. She pulled her fingers out of her ears and stopped, turning her head to stare reverently at a perfectly blank piece of wall.

"Oooookay," Elaine said, give Posie a peculiar look. "Uh, perhaps you didn't _hear _me—which I'm guessing you didn't since your fingers were in yours ears—are you awake? Asleep? Half and half? What!?"

"Dpn sde th' Scrd Rlm… Skke shns glnd n' blu…"

"Sounds kinda like she's reciting that old nursery rhyme about the Sacred Realm," Naomi advised. "Maybe she's dreaming about the Triforce or something, if she's really asleep. Try saying something; I dunno, worldly. Something you probably wouldn't hear from the Goddesses or whatever."

Elaine returned a blank look, totally unsure of how one would go about such a thing. How exactly did you phrase a sentence so that it was definitively secular? She thought something scientific-sounding would be good, as one did not usually lump faith and physics into the same category. Unfortunately, science was one of her worse topics, and all she could remember at the moment were a few factoids about the average walking speed of a human, which was something like 3.5 miles an hour.

Eerily in sync with her train of thought, Link's incoherent grumbling to himself pitched to a fast tempo and more audible volume. "…And if Moblins run at about 20 miles and hour, and we were carried along by them for, Goddesses, how long was it, Navi? I think I fell asleep again after that and I can't remember!"

"I think it was around 3 hours… I watched the stars and moon and tracked them across the sky. We all settled down at about 22:00, the Moblins came at roughly 1:00… Three hours to 4:00, and another that we've spent in here to make it about 5:00! The sun'll be up shortly, and if my calculations are correct…"

"Then," he snapped his fingers, "those ugly brutes actually lent us a _hand _by shaving the distance we'd have to cover by about _60 miles_!"

"Huuurrh!" Posie's eyes suddenly snapped open with a nearly-perceptible cracking noise, head whipping about in a seriously displaced fashion. "Huh? Hey, what's going on? How'd I get back here?"

Elaine breathed a sigh a relief that she would not be saddled with the task of jarring Posie from her meandering slumber, and laughed at th absurdity of it all. "I think you woke up," she teased gently.

"But… but I was in a Goddess's castle! And I was being followed… by… two… other… I was dreaming, wasn't I?"

"As far as we can tell," Naomi shrugged. "It was weird. You didn't stop walking, even though you had you eyes closed and sort of nodded off. You kept in such perfect step with us we really didn't notice anything until Elaine had a closer look and saw that you weren't exactly with us. Now, what were you saying about a Goddess's castle…?"

"Oh! Well, I was walking along inside of it, and everything was purple. It was made of some sort of crystal, but it was all too… _perfect _to have been carved. It looked kinda like it grew like that. And there were two funny kids walking behind me, and when I asked them a question, they started rambling on to each other about going to see their Lady, who was going to warn me not to go to Ipanajou. And then I saw a window, and the sky outside was _gold_! And I remembered that old rhyme, about the sky being golden in the Sacred Realm, and I figured out I must be there! And that the Lady those kids were talking about _had _to have been a Goddess! Who else'd have a castle like that?"

"I don't know of any Goddess that likes purple quite that much," Naomi replied. "I know Din is associated with red, Nayru with blue, and Farore with green, but purple? That's a new one."

"Maybe Din and Nayru were sharing it," Elaine offered. When Posie smirked at her, she defended herself with, "Hey, who knows? It's not really any of our business what they get up to up there." Both of them subsequently had giggle fits.

"…OK, OK, north-westerly; I give in," Link jabbed as he prodded fingers at Navi. "Does it really matter that much? North is north. It's all one direction in the end."

"No, it's not," Navi corrected. "It's not _due _north, which was our original direction. If we veered off to the left or the right, we'd have to contend with a slightly different path than if we'd go straight or went the other direction. As it was, if those Moblins had taken us as the Guay flies, we'd actually had saved something more like 70 miles, but they didn't. They took us to the left." Mentally, Link could feel something akin to a psychic _nyeh nyeh _tacked on to the end of the last few words.

"Well, Miss Walking Compass, what should we _do _about this grievous disaster of being 10 or so miles off course? The map gets really fuzzy 'round these parts, you know. All it shows is a lot of big rocks and empty space."

"Well, we're starting to get into more mountainous territory, silly!" Navi said. "What do you expect?"

"More precise information out of you," he half-heartedly snarled.

Naomi took a few loping strides backwards, sliding into a comfortable position to read over Link's shoulder while Posie and Elaine lead the way. Not like it really mattered much who was in front, since the Moblin's Fortress was remarkably devoid of variation—it was one continuous spiral of architecture; there were angles here and there along one fairly simple stone walkway that sloped gently downward. The cells they passed were all empty and the metal brackets on the wall had torches only sporadically enough to keep the fort from falling into total darkness, though outside the sky was beginning to progress from Midnight's black to the navy of a slowly-approaching sun.

"It looks to me like there's a cataract over here and a river that cut some kind of canyon," Naomi suggested, jabbing her finger at a trail of thin blue ink across the map. "It's not far from here, and everywhere else is all rocky. I think the fastest way would be to follow the river downstream and pull out right about here—"—she indicated a place on the map where the ground was labeled as falling into a shallow, quarry-like bowl—"—and go across this pit here. That should put us right back on the trail."

"No WAY am I going near another river," Elaine protested, overhearing. "I've nearly drowned _enough _times on this little journey."

Naomi's faced twisted up a little; she didn't want to take a path that would make her daughter ill at ease. "Well, we could climb around this way, but the going would be exceedingly difficult. If the map speaks true, it's all boulders and little pebbles. How d'you think you'd climb over all that while missing a shoe?"

Elaine looked at her little unshod foot, the white wool of her sock all smeared over with mud, slime, and prickly cockleburs from the less savory plants she'd had to trod through and upon. She'd paced on nearly effortlessly without it; why did it matter now? Her foot was uninjured, and felt no more tired than the one with proper protection. "I don't need it. I've survived those big tree roots back in the forest, and the cold ground in the Fountain Cavern, and even the prickly grass fields we were sleeping in—a few rocks aren't gonna hurt now."

"Well, if you'd rather go that way than down the river, I'd still feel better if you had a proper shoe or something."

"Hey, what about me and Daddy? Don't we get a say in this?"

"And what about _my _needs and wants?" asked Navi. "What about what's convenient for _me_?"

"Calm down, everyone," Link broke in, "everybody can voice their opinions about which way we're gonna go. Now, it seems to me like the only two ways to really get back on track are by going over through the boulders or down the river, so we'll limit our choices to those two. Let's go about this democratically, people," and he came to a standstill in the hall. Everyone else automatically halted up as well, and gathered in close to be a part of the convention. "Now. Naomi, you go first. Tell us which way you'd rather go and your reasons."

"They both seem pretty good to me," she said. "I think the river would be faster. We could just walk along its edge, or we could build a raft and sail down it. However, I don't know what the water would be like, so that may not be wise." Pausing to collect her thoughts and to give Elaine a quick look to quell her anxious eyes, Naomi went on: "However, Elaine clearly doesn't like being around all that running water, and for her sake, I'd be willing to take the rocks. However, I'd feel guilty watching her clamber over them without real covering on her feet."

Seeing that she was finished, Link gestured to Elaine. "Elaine? What are your thoughts?"

"Rocks schmocks," she replied. "My foot can take it. Just keep me away from the river, that's all I ask!"

"Posie?"

"I do think the river would be the quicker way. I hate climbing. I'm so—"—she shuddered at having to be the one to say it about herself—"—_small _that it's awful for me. But it's not hard for someone to carry me or give me a boost up, and I'd try my hardest to get over those boulders. I'll make sacrifices since Elaine is so afraid of water and drowning. 'All for one, and one for all.' I've heard that a lot, but I don't know where it's from. It makes a lot of sense though, if you're on a team, and I'll do it!"

"You next, Navi," Link said, pointing him thumb backwards at the fairy.

"Firstly, it's from _The Three Musketeers _by Alexander Dumas. Senior. Not to be confused with his son, Alexander Dumas Jr., who wrote _The Count Of Monte Cristo. _But to more pressing matters. I can fly, so it doesn't matter to me a whit."

"But you made all that fuss about not being able to have a chance to say anything!" Posie accused.

"Yeah, well, even if my opinion is indifference, it still matters, doesn't it?" Navi asked philosophically of Posie. "Even if it counts toward nothing, at least it has been said and people know what I think."

Posie had no good reply.

"I suppose that leaves me last, then," Link announced himself. He cleared his throat. "Personally, _I _hate rock climbing, too. The head of my Hookshot can't get a hold in stone, and without it anchored into something ahead or behind of me… well, I get a touch of vertigo. I won't deny it! But we're not going high up, it doesn't look like, just sort of… riding the waves of a sea frozen in stone. If I had it my way, we'd be browsing up and down the riverbank, but it looks like I'd be outvoted. So, come on, guys, let's go tackle a couple of rocks…"

Tuesday morning. The stars were slowly melting away into the growing indigo brightness that was sweetening the sky. The moon lingered, however, looking as if it planned to stick until its age-old mortal enemy, the sun, threatened it out of its perch in its entirety. Only then would it reluctantly slink back, becoming little more than a milk-white blotch on the sky until it finally dipped out of sight around noon. Until then, it haughtily shed its beams over the plains of Hyrule, night's monarch reigning over all the creatures that lived and breathed the nocturnal air.

One of the moon's most loyal denizens was the owl. Although not a particularly wise bird, as many caricatures liked to envision them, it was painfully faithful, skittering towards its nests just as the sun came over the cusp of the mountains. Silently drifting on a warm updraft was one of their sort, his pinions spread wide as he thrilled at the feel of the wind through his feathers. He might have been any other owl looking to find one last field mouse for his dinner before retreating back to bed, were it not for the fact that he was steering clear of the forest where his home ought to have been. Sol was fast approaching the finish line in his race for the horizon, and he paid it no heed. He was no normal, simple-minded bird, and he flew with a _purpose _beyond that of hunting for his sustenance. That, and he was positively _huge_—larger than a barn owl, larger than a snowy owl, larger than an eagle owl, larger than even an eagle itself! If he stood, he was tall as a full-grown man, and his wings stretched out to at least a magnificent ten feet each. His talons were strong and muscled; he could carry a large package or small child with no difficulty. Hyleans called him _Kaepora Gaebora, _and unlike true owls, he was very wise indeed.

He sailed over the great steppes of the land effortlessly. He would dip his wings together, and suddenly, he sailed over Lon Lon Ranch, where already its three residents were beginning to stir. Life began early in ranches. He would bank to the left a little, and find himself circling around Kakariko Village. He peeked in particular into the house of one Impa, Sage of Shadow, but the curtains were drawn. Even if he could look inside, the house itself was under the arrest of the time-speeding spell known as _Tima Mœditori_. Everything inside would appear as if frozen in the instant the chant began to work its magic, and such picture would not break until the spell had run its course. Being able to at least say he was free of the guilt of not having checked, Kaepora pulled upward, and glided serenely over toward the Castle Town. For humans, the distance between the two was small enough that it was but a scant forty-five minute walk. For him, he could breeze the distance between them in five minutes flat.

He sailed low over the multicolored rooftops of the town's shops and houses, peering down into chimney stacks and occasionally seeing the glow of a fire left to burn through the smoke. He skimmed low over one house in particular, and his fine nose picked up the smell of hot coffee and the polish many guards used on their armor. That was the house of Randy Parkerstine, though he didn't know such. For the past few nights, Randy had gotten little sleep in worrying about his daughter, and tried to console himself with copious amounts of caffeine and by tending to his armor. But what news Kaepora bore weighed in him as much more than a gentle, nagging concern.

The giant owl made for the tall-roofed Temple of Time, high windows reflecting the glint of the few persevering stars and the adamant moon. One of them was forever held open as a courtesy to Kaepora, who was a frequent visitor to this temple. Because he was so often seen beside it, and because of his great wisdom, it had been rumored once that he was one of the great Sages reincarnated. Preposterous, of course. But he knew Rauru. And he _must _speak with Rauru. He fluttered through the perpetually ajar window, claws clattering on tile as he landed on the floor. Much more gracefully than Posie had done some days before. Nipping the corner of one of the pews for luck, he ran as fast as his bird's feet would allow him toward the cloisters. As high as the roof of the Temple was, it was too dangerous to fly inside.

He skipped down the long hallways at a sprightly pace, though his face was stormed with a severe expression that was anything but nimble. Fear motivated his urgency. His talons clacked against the bare tiles of the empty cloister. A door, a door… where was Rauru's door? He could remember the look of it, but not its placement! In the wood was engraved a picture of the Medallion of Light… he ardently scanned the walls for any sign of that inverted Triforce.

Ah, now, there it was. He had been skipping so fast that he had nearly missed the thing. Delicately, so as not to scratch the finely polished paneling, Kaepora lifted a claw and rapped trice on the door. He also hooted, a single low and saddened note. It was the trill of an emergency that required Rauru's immediate attention. Kaepora knew that his friend liked to wake early, and only hoped that something, _anything _before dawn was part of his usual regimen.

"Rauru…" he cooed softly, in a slightly desperate attempt to make sure the Sage was awake.

"Blast it, Kaepora," a slightly grouchy voice groaned from behind the door. The owl's sharp ears could hear the creaking of the priest's cot as he tried to extricate himself from its folds. The giant owl sighed with a very temporary relief at this fact. "Good old Rauru," he mumbled, while Rauru grumbled, "Hold your horses! I'm coming to get it, but I'm tired and old. Give me a moment. Even if it _is _an emergency."

The door swung ajar. The dishelved Light Sage adjusted his flannel night robe as he peered down at the owl, his eyes saying enough about his state of mind. "Don't use any words longer than seven letters, condense ideas to a few choice sentences, and do hurry it up a bit. I need my beauty sleep!" Vocally, Rauru's crinkled voice conveyed the same ideas in a more polite fashion: "Whatever it is, my old friend, please say it with brevity. I'd like to return to my dreams—they were quite pleasant. Much to the contrast of all the nonsense Impa has been spouting lately."

"Hmm?" In that unnerving owl way of his, Kaepora turned his head around a full 360 degrees to give an inquisitive look. "What sort of 'nonsense' would that be? From my experience, whatever Impa says is typically true. I heard a few of my nightingale friends talking about the Sage of Forest, and how _she _was mumbling to herself about a meeting of the Sages held yesterday afternoon and Impa's current state. Despite such a fact, I doubt she'd be one to let hormones cloud her judgement, regardless of what she's judging on."

"Ahh, yes, but it's not so simple with time around, Kaepora," Rauru sniffed through his mustache. "Even if she's telling the truth, the rest of us Sages are prepared to lie through our teeth about it and deny it vehemently as possible… the last thing we'd want is for it to be true."

"Even if the wisest man says something is false, that does not make it so," Kaepora intelligently nodded.

"Indeed, no," Rauru agreed, against his will. He offered an arm to the gigantic bird, who was light of body and spirit despite his size. Like an obedient falconer's pet, the owl climbed aboard and let himself be hefted on the man's limb, clutching delicately so as not to cause him discomfort. And even though he was aged, Rauru could still heft Kaepora up and bear him to the writing desk that crouched in one corner of Rauru's room.

Kaepora settled himself comfortably near a small pile of books, and puffed up his feathers for warmth in the small stone alcove. "Since I fear that Impa's purported 'nonsense' is at the heart of the matters I have uncovered, it would probably do you best to explain it to me. Even though it is usually I who gives the advice around here!"

"You use that word, 'nonsense,' more effectively than a sword against me," Rauru clucked. "I wish I had not said it. Fine, very well—Shadow Haven was attacked by Twinrova, and they stole the Book of Dusk from the last Sheikah. Impa believes the two of them may be plotting to revive Ganon."

Kaepora took this exceedingly well, though he dreaded the prospect. It was merely the case that he was not surprised. "That explains a great deal, then. The things I have seen, both at the hands of man and in the grip of destiny."

"Don't talk in riddles," Rauru chided. "Tell me straight what is you've seen."

"Be patient, old buddy," Kaepora's beak clacked at the Sage. "On the first bit of news, of what the Hyleans have done to themselves… ahem. I was passing by Hyrule Castle yesterday and decided to have a chat with my friends Zelda and Mercutioe. I found them, and all their servants, to be very… odd."

"The King and his daughter have always teased the boarder between 'eccentric' and 'genius;' this is hardly news. Unless you means to say they were more peculiar than usual."

"About an IQ of 70 unusual," Kaepora grimly replied. "Everyone in the castle was acting… well, _stupid, _to put it bluntly. Like children, they seemed to be incapable of properly comprehending anything but the simplest of matters! They would giggle at the slightest little thing, talking in an aloof manner and babyish language."

"Oh." Rauru nervously put his fingers to his mouth and began to chew his nails. "Oh. My. That's… highly abnormal. Especially when it is, after all, _Zelda _that we talking about. She is one of the most brilliant minds in all Hyrule; I remember that she was very precocious as a child. And she was quite normal this past Friday; I visited her! She was a little annoyed at her friend Link, who seemed to be wrestling with some childish problem of his own, but aside from that…"

"I wondered about that," Kaepora said half to himself. "Apparently this change is very abrupt, then. Though, having been told of Impa's suspicions about Ganon… I do wonder…"

"Don't keep it to yourself," the Sage clamored. "Any piece of information you might have could be vital if what Impa says is true!"

"Perhaps," the old owl hooted, "Zelda has prophesied this second coming of Ganon and so sent away her Piece of Wisdom, back to the Sacred Realm from whence it came in order to protect it. Now, the pieces have not been taken from their holders since they were bestowed upon them, but suppose, just suppose… the Piece had gotten the trait of that person and all close to them wrapped up in it, and by sending away the piece it took that trait with it? Since this has never happened before, it's entirely possible, and even Zelda could not have foreseen such a thing… don't you think, Rauru?"

"It makes a terrible sense," the Sage of Light shuddered. "I don't wonder that you've hit the nail on the head!"

Kaepora sighed, feeling deep in his stomachs that he had theorized correctly. And with Zelda in the state she was, there was no way to ask her…! Darkness dawned, indeed. "In that case, something must be done to protect the Princess. As per usual, she will be in grave danger from Ganon's marauding hoards, and seeing as I have recently finished sending off a few parcels that I was asked to deliver for him, I shall go and ask Link to rise to the mantle of her champion again."

"No use," Rauru sighed while stroking his mustache. "He's gone. Off gallivanting around Hyrule, freeing Gerudos from imprisonment by their peers."

"Hrm?"

"Well, apparently a Gerudo managed to escape from the Fortress, and Link was somehow at fault. Or, so I heard some of the other Sages gossiping at the meeting yesterday. He had his daughter with him; whatsername, I can never remember…"

"Really? He did? Astounding. I can't remember her name either, it's Violet or Petunia or Rose or some other such flower, but… that's reckless even for our buddy Link. The girl's barely more than five years old… Some would even go so far as to say she's still a toddler."

"But if Saria's word is to be taken at face value, she's about as precocious as Zelda was," Rauru somehow managed to recall. "Sharply intelligent, and with a greater understanding of morals and logic than any of her peers. Not to mention that, in emulating her blessed father in his handling of swords, she has managed to steady her arm motions and doesn't usually wobble all over the place like other children. Physically and mentally advanced! Or so our Forest Sage says."

"From what I've seen, it's not a lie," Kaepora confirmed. "Of course, I've never seen her up close or listened very carefully to what she sounds like from afar, but I've heard her use words like 'abstract' and 'pristine' and 'foliage.' She's either very smart or has some very lucky nonsense vocabulary."

Rauru massaged his chin in meditation, the heaviness in his heart weighing down his breathing. His old blue eyes were solidly fixated on the slit of a window above Kaepora's head, where they drank in the slowly expanding dawn of bloodstained gold.

But for "their buddy" Link, his "precocious" daughter, the "imprisoned" Gerudo, and unmentioned crew of Elaine and Navi, it was a dawn like a ripe summer peach, swelling with the nectar of life. They could start to smell the smooth rocks outside the fortress; earthy and comforting. Their despair at having lost the Ocarina of Time was being replaced by the excitement of the rising sun, and a bit by the sleepiness that came from having not gotten much rest the night before. Link was hungry, as well, since he had lost his dinner in the throws of a phantom pain.

"Is there gonna be anywhere to sleep out on those rocks?" Elaine loudly queried and lodged this complaint at once. "I want a nap. I didn't get to sleep long last night…"

"I got to sleep a little, but I'm still tired," Posie said as she rubbed her eyes. Lack of rejuvenating rest had eroded her usually eloquent nature. "I… wanna… go… to… bed…"

"We all want a little shut-eye—"—his words were punctuated by a yawn as if to emphasize a point—"—kid, but it wouldn't be wise to go nodding off with Moblins about. They'd probably go throwing us back in the jails."

"…Which has proven highly ineffective," Naomi added. "The girls could spring us free in an instant. Besides, I haven't seen hide nor hair of those walking sludge factories since we escaped our cell."

"Yeah, but who's to say the Moblins wouldn't have wised up to that trick?" When everyone looked at Link skeptically, he shrugged and offered up a "Hey, you never know."

Despite not being believed by his friends that Moblins were capable of "wising up," he remained insistent in his urgings that not all was safe. "Something still doesn't seem right," Link sighed, shaking his head from side to side. "I get the feeling that the Moblins still have one last trick up their sleeves for us. I mean, no guards? I mean, those big pigs are dumb, but they're not _that _dumb. Even _they _post sentries."

"Maybe we're just lucky, and this particular batch forgot to read the book on 'How To Be Semi-Stupid,'" Naomi dryly observed. "Or rather, they did, but they skipped the 'semi' part. They've certainly shown enough lapses in good judgement that I could begin to mistake one of them for you, Linky-boy."

"Oooh," Link's voice reeled. "Hey, no hitting beneath the belt. I thought we agreed, no more—"

"We agreed to be friends, not to stop arguing," Naomi interrupted him. She smugly wore her correction on her face. "The two by no means go hand-in-hand. Ain't that right, Elaine? I'm sure you and Posie argue all the time."

"Err, well, occasionally, really, no," Elaine stuttered. "Not much, anyway. About the only time we ever do anything we have to apologize to each other for is if one of us accidentally makes a mean joke about the other—stuff about Posie's height for me, or her saying something about the fact that I don't—well, didn't—have a mom. Like, right before we came to Gerudo Valley, and were in this volcano…"

"Alright, I get it," Naomi sighed. "Darn. I was hoping you'd give me some argument fodder."

"…Argument horse food?"

"It can mean something like evidence too, or support, Elaine," Posie told her. "Do I still get a point, even though your mommy used it, and you knew part of what it meant?"

"Eh, take half a point." Elaine held up the traditional fist and raised a bent-over finger into the air. "And no fair trying to get more by reciting random words and asking me what they mean. You have to use it fair and square in a sentence, and it has to be _relevant._"

Naomi silently raised and eyebrow, not having yet figured out the strange game Posie and Elaine played with their vocabularies. She wondered if they were actually keeping score, or just making a show of stumping each other with large words and then pretending to earn and deduct points for the fun of it. She wondered what would happen if she asked one of them what the score was. She wondered how it had gotten _started _in the first place, or if it was something they'd always played. She wondered… it was frustrating, wondering and not knowing. She wished she could just touch a finger to Elaine's forehead and learn all the vital things about her—favorite color, favorite animal, favorite song, where the best place to fly kites or sail paper boats was in her opinion. And what made her so willing to persevere against a world that kept attempting to kill her? She was so like RJ—_RJ, oh, RJ, I can't wait to see you again, but it'll be soon, because we're so close to Ipanajou, and then we can go home, I really want to be home, where my two dearest hearts lie…_

Something was making scratching noises against the stone of fortress.

Link jumped and tensed; his left hand leapt back almost automatically to pull out his sword. Naomi reached for her twin blades, yanking them out of their scabbards and unconsciously fueling them with a little bit of magic. They pulsed slightly with the extra power—smoky Fire and shimmeringly-clear Ice. Posie groaned, "Oh no, not _now_!" out loud, and decided that she was too tired to swing a long metal bar around. Instead she opted to pull out her bow and an arrow to be ready, silver feathers trembling under torchlight mingling with dawn. Elaine decided that her new hammer needed a workout, and pulled it from her pocket. It rapidly expanded into a full-sized, feather-light weapon, ready to knock back assailants.

A bit too late to be of any help, Navi said, "We've got company…"

Shuffling eerily, "company" scooted in uninvited. The first thing noticeable on it in the pre-dawn gloom was the stark whiteness of their "faces—"—gaping holes unfit for the eyes, nose, and mouth they were meant for. Disgustingly elongated human skulls, mounted on the backs of bloated, scaly brown spiders. Naomi was reminded of a nightmare she had had once, of being trapped in a room with one exit, from which cockroaches poured in. But this, oh, this was infinitely worse, this army of marching Skulltulas…

Posie whimpered audibly. Link shifted his weight to be properly between her and the creatures, though this prompted no sign of relief from her. "It's OK, kid," he told her softly. "Daddy's not gonna let those things hurt you."

"Too many legs!" she managed to blurt out.

"Are those skull things part of them, or are they just for decoration?" Elaine asked Link, who knew more about monsters than she. If they were removable, she quickly formulated, then she'd try to tug them off to expose their soft bodies. It was just like hunting a regular bug that had hidden under something sturdy—pry its shelter away, and it's open for the squishing.

"Err, never really checked that out," Link replied quickly; he scraped his sword along the wall. Three of the smallest and quickest-advancing Skulltulas fell flat on their skull-sides, drawn to it due to its heavy weight. He stabbed them each in quick succession, staining the tip of the sword with blue arachnid blood. "I know they don't fall off when they're dropped, but they might just be stuck there with spider silk."

Posie nudged a dead one tentatively with her foot. Its bleached bone face made scraping sounds along the stone floor, which made Elaine grimace. But the skull didn't bother Posie at all—it was, indeed, the multifarious many-sectioned legs. She had no idea why, but anything with more than four legs and segmented legs that could be seen easily scared her like few other things did.

Naomi leapt like a frog past Link into a stern stance, protectively raising her blades before her. Although it would take a greater blow than she had the energy for to shatter the bony shields of the Skulltula, she could easily set one on fire. She sent a plume of white flame arching off her sword into the thick of the steady stream of monsters, turning their skulls to ash and charring their soft, unprotected bodies. But one big burst was all she really had strength left for; she concentrated then on setting fire to smaller Skulltula with cooler and easier to form crimson bolts. She used the power of ice more as a shield than anything else.

Link decided to take a hint from Naomi on that one. If heat was an effective weapon against the creatures, heat he would use! Of course, his own magical skills were far from being able to summon raging fire from the tip of his sword, but he had his own special brand of trump card play.

Although he wasn't feeling his best, he still thought he had enough strength left to use this particular brand of sword trickery. He started to funnel his power along the blade as he usually did when powering up for his spinning slash, but instead of letting it change and accumulating more strength, he forced it off the weapon with a quick mental shove. The blade recoiled a little as the spell was fired; the magical beam rammed into a large Skulltula's forehead and drilled through the bone armor, leaving a scorching hole. The monster's legs drew in, and it died.

Surprisingly, Posie had never seen that technique before. Why, that looks like the precursor to a spinning slash! Maybe, if I could just figure out how to do that, I'd be halfway there…

So she held out her sword in front of her with two hands, concentrating on it and flicking it—she had seen Link's Master Sword bounce a little after he'd made his shot, and figured that that was the method of firing. Her right side felt slightly numb for some reason, but she kept on thinking, and flicking, and thinking, and flicking, and…

The tiniest purple glow flew around Posie's sword!

"Daddy!" she cried out ecstatically.

"Wha?"

Link turned around precisely as a Skulltula on the ceiling reached its apex above him, preparing itself for an ambush. Posie looked upward with the intention of getting a good look at his face, but when she saw the thing hanging above him, loosening its legs, her motive instantly switched to warning. "Look out!"

"Huh?" Link spun back around again, slightly dizzy now. He spied the monster lurking on the ceiling out of the corner of his eye—just in time, he ducked out of its way, and it fell to the ground without hitting a soul—though it now stood as a barrier between Link and Posie.

In her distraction, the little purple dot of power quietly evaporated back into non-existence. Despite the slightly electrocuted feeling in that arm, she quickly transferred her sword to her right hand only. Without thinking very much, she smacked the flat side of it against the jawbone of the Skulltula between her and her father. Angrily, it made a noise that was a cross between a roar and a chirrup, lifting itself up on its back legs and propelling himself forward with a hop.

Posie kept waiting for the adrenaline to kick in, but she saw that she couldn't wait any longer or else she'd be smothered by a giant spider with a death's-head façade. Swallowing a mouthful of saliva that tasted like fear, she made a jump with her sword help high above her head. It sliced along the underbelly of the beast, showering her with its azure blood. She made candid sounds of disgust and pirouetted away before it could land on her.

"It's dead, and it _still _has too many legs."

Link laughed and kicked the corpse of the monster aside. "Thanks for the warning, love. You took care of it pretty nicely, I'd say. If it were three times bigger than me and had been charging at me like that, I probably would've thought of that. I'd say that was an excellent use of…"

"Enough idle chitchat!" Navi dived in Link's face, startling him. "Your partner over there is getting a little _swarmed, _if ya know what I mean? Get over there at help her out!"

"Outta my face, Navi," Link spat back at her. "I have priorities. Blood is thicker than water…"

"She lived up to her name and killed the bug. There's no more back there. Now get up there and live up to _yours_!"

Link snarled. He gave Posie a hasty apology for not being able to finish congratulating her, and wiped a blue smear off her forehead before kissing her lightly and running off to beat his way deeper into the hoard of bugs.

Elaine, who had been largely standing there the whole time, turned to look at Posie curiously. "Can you live up to the name of Blade by just slaying _one _Skulltula, even if it was huge?"

"Err, maybe… but I think she was talking about middle names. You know, his is Hiro… be a hero, she's saying."

"But then what does Cassandra have to do anything."

"Err, well, Mommy told me it means 'shining down on mankind…' but since I warned Daddy about the Skulltula about to ambush him, maybe she meant the Greek legend part."

"Greek legend part?"

"Yeah. Cassandra was a prophet of doom."

Elaine "Ahhhh"-ed that statement. As if to prove a point, Posie pointed behind Elaine and made sudden frantic little noises—Elaine turned around and casually cleaved the skull of a Skulltula in half.

Navi saw this and sighed to herself. "If you ever wanted proof that violence was desensitizing…" She flew off towards Link's side, to play her perennial part of waving her arms and yelling out the monsters that still needed to be killed.

"Yanno…" Posie mused aloud to herself, "despite the fact that they're nasty monsters, I do kinda feel a little sorry for them."

Posie wasn't sure what Elaine's reply was(It sounded like "Kay lassie-ma"), but her tone was agreeable.

"I mean, they're victims of whoever commands them. They have to follow their boss."

"Well, they ARE bugs… they can't be too smart, can they? Maybe they're just mindlessly attacking us because we're in their territory. Like… how'd they say it in that nature magazine…? 'Instinct.'"

"Like mosquitoes seek us out and bite us."

"Oh." Posie thought a moment. "Guilt trip's over, then. I always swat mosquitoes."

Elaine grinned mischievously. "Then let's go bag us some Skulltulas!

__


End file.
